Rights body rejects calls to probe Freeport

Rights body rejects calls to probe Freeport

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights
yesterday rejected an appeal by Irian Jaya students to look into
allegations that PT Freeport Indonesia played an active role in
the killings of civilians in the province earlier this year.

A group of Irian Jaya students visited the commission's
secretariat yesterday to demand that the commission follow up its
earlier report establishing that human rights violations had been
committed by the authorities in dealing with an uprising.

The commission's report implicated Freeport, an American
copper and gold mining company with an operation in Timika, Irian
Jaya, but only to the extent that some of the killings occurred
in the company's area of operation and that some of its
facilities -- a container and a bus -- had been used.

The military is currently preparing a tribunal to try some of
the soldiers whom it said violated procedures in handling the
conflict in Timika. The human rights commission established that
16 civilians were killed and four went missing between October
1994 and June 1995 during military operations.

Clementino Dos Reis Amaral, a member of the human rights
commission who met with the 12 students, said his organization
had neither the capacity nor the authority to follow up on its
findings on the allegations of human rights violation.

"It is under the authority of the Irian Jaya provincial
administration and local police to conduct a follow up
investigation," Clementino said.

"You have the right to know the result. But you have to go to
the local administration and police, because we have submitted
our reports to them," he added.

He denied the suggestion that the commission was protecting
Freeport. "We have no interests with Freeport whatsoever. What
would the benefit of defending Freeport be?" he said.

He admitted that the commission's investigation team during
their trip to Irian Jaya used Freeport's helicopter, but this in
no way affected the impartiality of the report.

He said the Freeport helicopter was the only mode of
transportation available to take the team to remote areas during
the course of its investigation.

The students, who said they came from the Solidarity Forum for
Irianese Students and Youths (FOSPEMAPI), earlier told Clementino
that another visit by the Commission to Timika is necessary to
establish the extent of Freeport's involvement in the killings.

"We want to know whether Freeport was involved in the killings
or not," said Yafet Kambai, who heads the delegation.

Yafet said that even based on the existing Commission's
report, there was sufficient ground to prosecute the mining
company as an accessory to the killings.

Freeport's spokesman Paul Murphy said separately yesterday
that several other independent investigations had proven that
Freeport and its employees were clean.

He said Freeport is obliged to provide facilities to the
authorities, but stressed their use are not its responsibility.
(imn/03)