Court concludes hearing of Freeport case

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta State Administrative Court concluded yesterday the hearing of a lawsuit filed by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment against the government for approving the environmental conservation program of the giant American copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia.

Both the forum and the government, in this case the representatives of the secretary-general of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, presented their closing arguments at a hearing yesterday. Both stuck firmly to their positions.

The panel of judges, led by Benjamin Mangkoedilaga, is to announce its verdict on Oct. 30.

The trial is happening as Freeport, which runs a huge mining operation in Irian Jaya, takes some of the heat from the controversy over the alleged killings of several civilians in clashes with the military in Timika, the township in which the company is operating.

Freeport, which is in the process of spending US$36 million on an environmental conservation program, is not a party to the dispute in the lawsuit filed by the forum.

The environmental group is contesting a Feb. 17 decision by the Ministry of Mines and Energy to approve Freeport's environmental conservation and monitoring programs, saying that the government should also have secured the agreement of the forum, which has a seat in the ministry's Environmental Impact Analysis Commission.

Lawyers representing the forum told the hearing yesterday that a 1993 presidential decree clearly stipulates that an environmental impact management plan must have the approval of all commission members.

The approval for Freeport's environmental conservation program, signed by Secretary-General Umar Said, therefore, is invalid, they argued.

The forum is demanding that the court revoke the approval because it was issued in violation of procedures, including failure to take into account concerns by the forum about the waste being discharged by the mining company, which, it says, could harm the environment.

Lawyers for the Ministry of Mines and Energy argued that the forum only holds a "non-permanent" seat in its environmental commission and, therefore, does not have any right to its claim to represent the commission in the lawsuit.

The lawyers said the lawsuit has been directed at the wrong person because the secretary-general only signed the approval letter on behalf of his minister, the person who makes the decision on such issues.

The forum was represented by Bambang Widjojanto of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, while the secretary-general of the Ministry of Mines and Energy was represented by a full team of lawyers: Harprileny Soebiantoro, M. Saleh Sani, Sjaiful Bachtiar, and Yoseph Suardi Sabda. (imn)