Prosecutors question police methods in Newmont probe

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.