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.