Govt under fire over Newmont case

Govt under fire over Newmont case

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Activists condemned a suggestion by a minister that the
government might consider an out-of-court settlement with U.S.
mining company Newmont in a civil lawsuit involving alleged
pollution of Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi, warning that it would set
a bad precedent for the enforcement of environmental law.

Raja Siregar of the Indonesia Forum for the Environment
(Walhi) said that if the government acceded to Newmont's offer of
mediation, this would prove its half-heartedness in enforcing the
law in the environmental field.

"Money defeats everything, including the law," he said over
the weekend.

Indro Sugianto of the Indonesia Center for Environmental Law
(ICEL) concurred with Raja, saying that the government was
placing foreign investment ahead of the need to protect the
environment.

"This regime is an investment-obsessed regime," he said,
referring to the government of President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, who is set to meet U.S. investors during a visit to
the U.S. later this month.

On Friday, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal
Bakrie said that the government might drop a US$133.6 million
lawsuit against Newmont unit PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR)
should both sides reach agreement on an out-of-court settlement.

Judges of the South Jakarta District Court, which began
hearing the civil lawsuit last month, suggested that the
government and NMR settle their dispute amicably. Judges hearing
civil cases are obliged to suggest this at the outset of a case.

Aburizal's comment came after a meeting with other relevant
ministers, the Attorney General's Office (AGO), and the North
Sulawesi administration.

The meeting mandated the establishment of an interdepartmental
committee to support the AGO, which represents the government in the
lawsuit against NMR, whose gold mining operation has been accused
of polluting Buyat Bay.

Aburizal added, however, that the government would not drop
the criminal case against NMR and six of its executives on
charges arising out of the same case.

The government has said that the civil lawsuit was aimed at
seeking damages "to restore the environment in Buyat and relocate
its residents" away from the affected areas, while the criminal
prosecution was intended "to create a deterrent against breaking
environmental law".

Luhut M.P. Pangaribuan, a lawyer representing NMR, said that
the company had yet to be informed about a possible out-of-court
settlement.

However, he told The Jakarta Post by phone that NMR was ready
to engage in mediation to settle the case if the government
dropped both the civil action and the criminal prosecution.

Newmont, which is also facing a lawsuit worth millions of
dollars in Peru, has denied the allegations that its mining
operations near Buyat Bay resulted in pollution that caused
villagers to develop skin diseases and tumors.

A string of scientific tests on the bay and its residents by
the government, Newmont and other parties have produced
conflicting results.

Newmont has admitted it released 17 tons of waste mercury into
the air and 16 tons into the water over five years, but said that
these releases were far below Indonesian emissions standards.