More Buyat residents to have blood test in Jakarta
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Ten more residents of Buyat Pantai village in North Sulawesi are scheduled to fly to Jakarta next week to undergo a blood test to provide evidence of mercury poisoning, allegedly caused by tailings of a gold mining company in the province.
Albert Panggabean, the non-litigation division head of the Health Legal Aid Institute, said it was the villagers, who live near Buyat Bay, who had insisted on having a test in Jakarta to prove that the bay had been contaminated with metal waste.
"As some people still doubt that there is metal contamination in the bay, they insist on coming to Jakarta to have their blood tested to support the finding that mercury was found in the blood of their neighbors," Albert said on Saturday.
He was referring to the result of a laboratory test by the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MIPA) at the University of Indonesia.
The test revealed mercury levels in the blood of Sri Fika, Jukria, Masnah and Rasyid Rahmat of between 9.51 to 23.90 microns per liter (u/L), or above the tolerable limit of 8 u/L.
According to Albert, the Buyat residents were disappointed with the statements of several high-ranking officials, including environment minister Nabiel Makarim and health minister Achmad Sujudi, who dismissed possible metal contamination in Buyat Bay.
"The officials might issue such statements as they do not suffer from the contamination. The people have eaten fish from Buyat Bay and been exposed to the water for years," he said.
Albert suggested that instead of denying the accusations, the government officials should take the incident as an early warning sign to prevent worse cases from occurring in the future.
"The Minamata disease could occur in the future because Buyat residents have eaten fish that contains mercury for years. The substance accumulates and could reach a level that can cause Minamata," he said.
Minamata occurs if mercury level in the blood reaches between 200 and 500 u/L.
Separately in Yogyakarta, Nabiel insisted that no metal contamination had been detected in Buyat Bay according to an examination by his office.
"If they want to file a report against me with the police, just go ahead. My statements are based on scientific tests," he told reporters after a meeting with Yogyakarta governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X.
Nabiel has been criticized for asserting that the mercury level in Buyat Bay was safe and that the people who claimed to be suffering from Minamata disease actually had common skin diseases.
However, during a visit to the bay on Thursday he refused to eat fish that had a lump and secreted a foul-smelling black liquid.
Meanwhile, Palmer Situmorang, a lawyer representing gold mining firm PT Newmont Minahasa Raya, said the company would wait for the result of the investigation into the case now being conducted by a government team.
"We have been operating in the country in compliance with the law. So, we will wait for the result of the team's examination," he said.