Irianese leaders decry Freeport expansion plan

JAKARTA (JP): Irianese leaders, rebuking President B.J. Habibie for supporting the expansion plan of mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, demanded on Friday their people have a say in the process of licensing the development.

"The government is crazy. Officials in Jakarta have so easily allowed Freeport to increase its production without considering the devastating impact the expansion will have on us living around the mining field," Tom Beanal, a leader of the Amungme tribe living near Freeport's Grasberg mine in Irian Jaya, told The Jakarta Post.

The Amungme, most of whom are poor, claim the mining site is on their ancestral land.

Tom described "hellish" living conditions in the area due to pollution from the operation.

"The expansion would unleash a more devastating impact on the local environment," he said by telephone from the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura.

Tom was dismayed Habibie and his ministers never consulted with the Irianese about Freeport's expansion. He feared the government would meet any opposition to the plan with violence.

"People in Jakarta have never asked for our opinion. The government has never allowed the Irianese people to think.

"If we protest their decision, they will send troops to kill us."

Habibie has instructed several ministers, including Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, to assist Freeport in realizing its plan to increase ore output to 300,000 metric tons per day (tpd) from 160,000 tpd.

Habibie gave the instruction despite Kuntoro's demand for further assessment of the plan.

Freeport is currently producing about 240,000 tpd as part of trial operation to achieve the 300,000 tpd goal. The company has reportedly invested US$1 billion to expand production facilities for increased output.

Tom said Freeport amassed great wealth from the mining of copper and gold in Grasberg and nearby areas for two and a half decades, even as living conditions of the local people worsened.

He also queried the probe by the Attorney General's Office into collusion charges leveled last year by American scholar Jeffrey Winters against Freeport and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita.

Winters charged Freeport with dubious deals to enable Ginandjar's associate Aburizal Bakrie to own a stake in the company as a reward for the smooth renewal of its contract of work (COW) for Grasberg.

The Attorney General's Office has investigated officials and businessmen implicated in Winters' allegation, but has not released findings to the public. A miffed Ginanjar vehemently denied the charges.

"I see many lies. While the investigation into KKN (the local acronym for corruption, collusion and nepotism) charges has never been concluded, now the President has allowed the company to increase its output," Tom said.

Consult

Meanwhile, the vice chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission V overseeing mines and energy, Antonius Rahail, who is Irianese, urged the government to consult with the provincial administration before making a decision on Freeport's plan.

"The President may make his own decision. However, the decision can't work if there is no support from the local people," Rahail, an Indonesian Democratic Party legislator, told the Post.

Meanwhile, Kuntoro said on Friday in Bandung, West Java, his ministry would only allow the firm's expansion if Freeport was willing to increase its royalty payments to the government and could prove it possessed the technical ability to prevent the expansion from causing environmental damage.

Many parties, including the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi), have expressed doubts about Freeport's ability to protect the environment around the mining field.

According to Director General of Mining Rozik B. Soetjipto, who accompanied the minister, the mines ministry is negotiating with Freeport to double its royalties to the government.

Currently, the government receives royalties of between 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent of Freeport's copper sales revenues and 1 percent of its gold and silver sales revenues.

Freeport is 81.28 percent owned by New Orleans-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, with the Indonesian government and PT Indocopper Investama Corporation each owning 9.36 percent.

Indocopper is 50.48 percent owned by Nusamba Mineral Industries, linked to former president Soeharto, 49 percent by Freeport McMoRan and 0.52 percent by the investing public. (jsk/43)