Freeport to release audit results
Freeport to release audit results
JAKARTA (JP): PT Freeport Indonesia, whose mining operation in Irian Jaya has often sparked allegations of human rights abuses, will release the results of its self-audit soon, a cabinet minister said yesterday.
State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said the results of the technical audit will be made public later this month and the report on the social implications of the mining activities in May.
Sarwono said the Indonesian government had pressurized the American gold and copper giant to carry out the auditing two years ago but it did so only last year.
"As it turned out the audit was too late ... Freeport has openly admitted it," Sarwono told journalists after meeting with President Soeharto.
PT Freeport, controlling an area of 26,400 square kilometers with the world's largest proven reserves of gold, has been a frequent target of allegations on human right abuses and environmental degradation.
The company, in operation in Irian Jaya since 1972, is 82 percent owned by Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, nine percent by the Indonesian government and the rest by the Bakrie Group.
Sarwono said he proposed that the Indonesian government strengthen its role in dealing with PT Freeport although it has no plan to nationalize it.
"I have written to the Ministry of Home Affairs to contribute ideas on how to strengthen the government's role," he said.
He said that due to the size of the company, it can no longer be handled on a subdistrict administrative level.
The central government in Jakarta has the right to augment its role in the company because the contract agreement was signed by the company and the government of the Republic of Indonesia, he added.
Sarwono said the Indonesian government will stick to its rejection of proposals to close down or nationalize PT Freeport although the company had caused "problems".
"The government will never bow to such demands. Its basic stand is that Jakarta should control it better, to make it a more valuable national asset and act for society's maximum benefit," he said.
The company, he said, is committed to carrying out social duties but it would be unrealistic to expect miracles from it.
It has paid royalties into state coffers and it is not their business to know how the government spends the money, he added to make a point. "Never mix things up. Don't blame Freeport if problems arise that are our fault," he said, without elaborating further.
Critics say that Freeport has not contributed enough to improve the well-being of local tribal people, who have the ancestral right to the land.
The tribes have often complained that they are subject to violent responses by the company's security authorities when they demand a fair deal. (pan)
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