Irian tribes to reject Freeport's trust offer

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)