Protests staged as Boyce pays police second visit
Protests staged as Boyce pays police second visit
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
United States Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce visited
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar on Wednesday in what
critics said was an attempt to intervene in the legal process
against PT Newmont Minahasa Raya.
The police are detaining several senior executives of the
U.S.-based mining firm as suspects in the pollution case of Buyat
Bay in South Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Paiman denied that Da'i
and Boyce discussed the detention of Newmont executives.
"He (Boyce) simply came to say goodbye. I swear we did not
talk about Newmont. He only asked about the progress of
investigation into the recent bombing in Jakarta," he said.
Boyce, whose tenure in Indonesia has ended and who will soon
leave to assume duties in Thailand, initially visited National
Police headquarters on Monday, but Da'i was unavailable.
During a meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri on
Monday, Boyce openly aired concerns over the detention of the
five Newmont executives and asked for their release.
Nevertheless, Paiman said, the U.S. government had not
intervened in the police investigation into the Buyat Bay case.
Apart from the five executives, including an American citizen,
the police also named Newmont Minahasa president Richard B. Ness
as a suspect in the same case and had detained him, but released
him for health reasons.
Ness is to be questioned again on Thursday.
A police source said the five Newmont suspects were being held
to prevent them from possibly attempting to destroy evidence.
As Boyce and Da'i held closed-door talks, several non-
governmental organizations and student groups protested outside
police headquarters against what they said was a U.S. move to
meddle in Indonesia's internal affairs, in particular the Newmont
case.
The protesters included activists from the Student Group for
Indonesian Democracy, the Anti-violence Student Committee, the
Tangerang Student Association and the Mining Advocacy Network.
The Community and Ecology Law Reform Organization (HuMa) held
similar protest, demanding the U.S. to respect the ongoing legal
process against Newmont and stop all intervention in the
country's internal affairs.
Meanwhile, Newmont chief executive Wayne Murdy, speaking on
Tuesday in Denver, Colorado, said the pollution allegations
against Newmont's operations in Indonesia were blatant lies.
"We are not polluting Buyat Bay. We meet very stringent
(environmental) standards there," Dow Jones quoted Murdy as
telling analysts and executives at Denver Gold Forum.