Freeport not arrogant

Freeport not arrogant

I read the letter The Jakarta Post reprinted from Forum
Keadilan entitled "No Freeport ads please!" with great concern
because the writer, as well-intentioned as he may be, is laboring
under several common misunderstandings of the situation in the
Timika and Tembagapuara area.

The first and most often repeated misunderstanding is that the
Amungme and other local peoples around the PT Freeport Indonesia
mine site are protesting against the presence of Freeport, and or
the expansion of the company's exploration activities in Irian
Jaya. Nothing could be further from the truth. While there are
individuals who will complain about Freeport, the overwhelming
majority of local people in the Timika and Tembagapura area are
very much in favor of the positive changes Freeport's presence
has brought.

The second misunderstanding in the writer's letter is that the
Indonesian military came to the area in response to the
"protests" against Freeport. In fact, the Indonesian military has
always had a minor presence in the area but increased troop
strength because of heightened OPM/GPK rebels activity, which
began in early May of 1994 in the village of Tsinga, and
culminated in the OPM/GPK shooting death of our employee, an
Irianese worker named Gordon Rumaropen, in November 1994.
Because, as the Komnas HAM human rights commission has stated,
the Indonesian government considers the Freeport mine a vital
national asset, the OPM/GPK disturbances in the nearby Tsinga
area and the murder of a Freeport employee caused great concern
and elicited the response to which the writer refers in his
letter.

Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of the writer's letter,
is his call for the censorship of Freeport's informational
advertising about, as he states, "Freeport's philanthropy".
Disseminating factual information about our social and
environmental programs only frightens some people because it
contravenes the misinformation they are attempting to spread. It
seems ironic that the very people who decry real or perceived
violations of "their" rights are often the first to step up and
ask for the suspension of someone else rights in response.

Finally, it needs to be said that Freeport is extremely
concerned about the events of the past year, from the killing of
our employee to the serious human rights abuses which Komnas HAM
has investigated and confirmed. We are not an arrogant
institution, as some people have suggested.

EDWARD J. PRESSMAN

PT Freeport Indonesia

Jakarta