Prosecutors question police methods in Newmont probe
Abdul Khalik and Jongker Rumteh, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Manado
The North Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office asked the police to seek further verification from scientific experts about the methodology that was used by the police lab to conclude that Buyat Bay in Minahasa, North Sulawesi was heavily polluted.
The office's spokesman Herlie Robert Ilat said prosecutors handling the pollution allegation against the local subsidiary of giant American mining firm Newmont, had returned the case file to the National Police after two weeks of study.
"There are 13 items that the police must explain, including the validity of the method used and samples taken during data collection," said Robert.
The National Police's investigators conducted research at the bay in August and tested the samples in a forensic laboratory in Jakarta. The test results they came up with concluded that the heavy metal content in the water far exceeded all legal standards.
The police named five executives of PT Newmont Minahasa Raya mining company -- American Bill Long, Australian Phil Turner, and three Indonesians David Sompie, Jerry Kojansow, and Putra Jayatri -- suspects and jailed them on Sept. 22. They are still in custody, but no charges have been laid. The company's president Richard B. Ness was also declared a suspect, but was not detained due to health concerns.
The police said they had followed scientific procedures in collecting the samples, but never explained publicly how they conducted their research, which differs greatly from the conclusions of other researchers, both local and international.
A number of scientists questioned the way the police collected samples, demanding that the police explain it to other scientists for verification.
Some experts have speculated that the police may have actually measured the amount of metals using a different method from the one called for in Ministerial Decree No. 51/2004, which could have led to the great differences vis a vis the tests conducted by several other scientific institutions.
The latest test was conducted by the Australia-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) that found no heavy metal pollution in Buyat Bay. It also said the fish tissue metal concentration was at a normal level.
"When the CSIRO report is combined with the results of the WHO/Minamata Institute report and the recently released Indonesian Government's Integrated Team report, the data provides an extensive picture of the environment and irrefutable scientific evidence that there is no pollution in the bay," Newmont said in a press release on Thursday.
Meanwhile, several non-governmental organizations (NGO) urged the police to investigate the motive behind a move by former environment minister Nabiel Makarim to release a report dated Oct. 14, which said the bay was not polluted.
The Environmental Forum on Indonesia (Walhi), the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) and the Indonesia Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) said in their joint statement that the police should also investigate Newmont for placing advertisements in several media to tell the public there was no pollution in Buyat Bay.
"The use of test results from WHO and the Institute for Minamata Disease in the advertisements is misleading because the research only measured the mercury level. In fact, mercury is not the only source of pollution," Raja Siregar of Walhi said.
A government-sanctioned joint team has conducted tests to verify reports of pollution in the bay. It is set to announce the test results soon.