Irian tribes to reject Freeport's trust offer

JAKARTA (JP): Leaders of the Amungme and Komoro tribes in Irian Jaya said yesterday they would reject the 1 percent trust fund offered by PT Freeport Indonesia.

"Leaders of the Amungme and Komoro tribes told me that they would unconditionally and absolutely reject Freeport's offering of the 1 percent trust fund," Martin E. Regan, a lawyer representing the leaders of the tribes, told The Jakarta Post.

Quoting the draft on the trust fund offering, Regan said PT Freeport Indonesia, an affiliate of New Orleans-based Freeport- McMoRan Inc, proposed a US$500,000 per year trust fund, calculated from Freeport's yearly dividend.

"The amount was far below the that of the trust fund previously mentioned by a senior Freeport official," Regan said.

"Each Amungme and Komoro will only receive Rp 110 (48 cent dollar) per week. What do you expect to buy with such an amount of money?" he asked.

Andrianto Machribie, president of PT Freeport Indonesia, said in April that the sum to be allocated for the local community was US$15 million a year.

Regan accused Freeport of "bribing" seven senior members of the two tribes to endorse the $500,000 offering.

Quoting a June 17 edition of the Dow Jones News Service, Regan said that Freeport had transferred Rp 500,000 to seven different senior tribal members to "accommodate" the endorsement of the draft, which is scheduled to be signed today.

He said that the offering would mean nothing for Freeport, as it could make huge profits each year from the Irian Jaya mining operation.

The Freeport mine, some 3,000 kilometers (1,870 miles) east of Jakarta, sits on one of the largest known gold and copper reserves in the world.

"The $500,000 offering is meaningless and an insult to the local people, as it is far below the amount of compensation demanded by Tom Beanal, an Amungme tribal leader, who has filed a lawsuit at a U.S. district court," Regan said.

Tom Beanal, an Amungme tribe leader, filed a lawsuit against Freeport-McMoRan Inc., charging that Freeport had engaged in "ecoterrorism", "cultural genocide" and corporate policies that led to human rights violations against tribal people, as well as environmental destruction of resources the tribe needs.

The lawsuit, filed in April in the U.S. District Court in New Orleans, also lists Freeport's mining affiliate -- Freeport- McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. of New Orleans -- as the defendant.

According to the suit, Freeport's security guards "engaged in summary execution, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, disappearances, surveillance and the destruction of property."

Freeport Indonesia is 82 percent owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., an affiliate of Freeport-McMoRan. The Indonesian government and a private company, PT Indocopper Investama, own 9 percent each. (imn)