More senior Newmont officers face questioning
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.