More senior Newmont officers face questioning
Abdul Khalik The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
More senior officers of PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) are to be questioned this week for allegedly contributing to the contamination of Buyat Bay in Minahasa, North Sulawesi.
A reliable police headquarters source said on Monday that they would question American Bill Long, Newmont's site manager, as a suspect as a senior officer at the mining site.
National Police director of specific crimes Brig. Gen. Suharto would not confirm whether Long would be questioned, but did say that police investigators would summon Newmont's managers on Wednesday and Thursday.
Police questioned last week the company's maintenance and production manager Phil Turner, external relations manager David Sompie, superintendent for the environment Jerry Kojansow and waste processing superintendent Putra Wijayantri. The four have all been named suspects in the case.
Long is the most senior of the four as well as the company's highest officer at the Buyat mining site.
"We will question him (Long) as a suspect because, based on our interrogation of other suspects, we believe he is responsible for the sort of waste dumped in the bay," said the source.
None of the suspects have been detained as, according to the police, they were cooperating fully with investigators.
The police forensic laboratory found that heavy metals in the bay exceeded the safety levels set by the Office of the State Minister of the Environment.
Newmont has repeatedly denied allegations that it is responsible for the water pollution, saying that at least three independent laboratories concluded that the bay was not polluted because the heavy metal content was far below government limits.
The government formed a joint team last month comprising officials from the Office of the Minister for the Environment, the Ministry of Health and the police to take more samples from the bay. The team is expected to announce its results after the election.
Police have charged all four suspects under Article 41 of Law No. 23/1997 on environmental pollution caused by an individual.
Under the law, an individual who deliberately contaminates or damages the environment is liable to 10 years in prison, while if his/her conduct also causes harm to humans he/she could face 15 years in prison.
Suharto said the police were attempting to establish the exact link between lower-ranking officers and senior officers and find evidence that would enable them to charge the company with committing a corporate crime as stipulated in Article 46 of the law.
The article stipulates that top officers be held responsible for a company's misconduct.
He said that after Long was questioned the police would summon Richard Ness, the company's president director, to explain Newmont's policies on its waste disposal.