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From: Pratap Chatterjee <pchatterjee@igc.apc.org>
Subject: freeport - news article on acfoa report - fyi
HUMAN RIGHTS-INDONESIA: US mining giant implicated in Indonesian atrocities
By Pratap Chatterjee
WASHINGTON, Sep 5 (IPS) - Gold and copper mined by a US multinational from
the island of New Guinea in the South Pacific is tainted with the blood of
the indigenous Amungme peoples, many of whom have been tortured or murdered,
says a new report.
The western half of the island, which was renamed Irian Jaya after it was
invaded by Indonesia in 1967, is the site of the world's largest gold mine
and the third largest copper mine, operated by Freeport McMoRan, a New
Orleans-based company.
Last week the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) released a
report compiled by H.F.M. Munninghof, the Catholic bishop of Jayapura in
Irian Jaya, alleging that Freeport vehicles and offices were used by the
Indonesian military to transport and torture tribal leaders, whom they
accused of fomenting a rebellion against Indonesia.
This is the second report issued by ACFOA on Freeport this year. The
first report, issued in April, alleges that the army opened fire on a group
of Amungme people who were on their way to church last Christmas day. The
new report contains more evidence of the events of the time as well as fresh
allegations of killings this May.
Freeport officials in this country say that none of their officials were
involved in the incident. They refused to comment on the allegations of
torture by the Indonesian military.
''Freeport operates under its host goverment laws and respects the
jurisdiction of the military, which is responsible for the safety and
security of its people,'' a Freeport official said in a statement faxed
to IPS.
The area around the Freeport mine have been heavily policed by the
Indonesian military and the company security forces ever since a Freeport
copper slurry pipe was blown up in 1977 by a group called Organasi Papua
Merdeka (Papuan Independence Movement).
The Indonesian military allegedly retaliated by killing several thousand
local people at the time to squash the resistance movement. Last year,
however, the rebels renewed their protests in response to news that Freeport
had signed an agreement to expand its search for gold and copper on the
island.
On Christmas day last year people from three churches in the villages of
Arwanop, Banti and Waa gathered in Waa village, to pray, after a major
peaceful demonstration protesting the mine.
Yunus Omabak, a Amungme tribal chief from Waa, says he was summoned to a
military post in Tembagapura, a major town in the area, the following day,
together with three other elders from his tribe, to report on the religous
service.
Omabak says he was put in a Freeport vehicle and taken to a Freeport
''security cell.'' There the soldiers accused them of raising the OPM flag
at the Christmas day protest and supplying the rebels with rice and
cigarettes before torturing them.
''(T)hey hit me over the head with a big stone till blood streamed over
my body. They put an iron bar in the hollow of my knees and forced me to
squat and lean against a chest for hours. I was screaming in pain,'' he
said in a statement translated by ACFOA.
''Meanwhile my friend Octo was stabbed with a bayonet in his left
shoulder and arm pit till he screamed out loudly. His hands were put on the
cement and stamped on with boots and hit with gun butts. I thought he was
dead,'' added Omabak.
The four elders were tortured for two weeks before being released on Jan.
10. The night before the tribal leaders were arrested a group of 15 Dani
tribespeople, some of whom were from Waa village, were taken on a Freeport
bus number 44 and tortured.
''When we were detained there three Dani from Waa were tortured by
being beaten with sticks on the neck from behind, left, right and from the
front, till their necks were broken and they died,'' says one of the
detainees who was released. The name of the detainee is not indentified in
the report.
''I walked home, and on the road I fell unconscious. When I came to, I
was covered with flies which were attracted to my wounds and blood. I
recovered and walked further till I fell again and became unconscious,''
says the detainee.
The torture and murder of indigenous villagers is allegedly still
continuing. The ACFOA report says that on May 31 this year, the police
surrounded a group of people praying in the forest after they had fled from
the village of Hoea after confrontations between OPM and the army.
''(W)ithout warning (the military) started shooting at the congregation
while they prayed. The Rev. Martinus Kibak raised his hands to surrender,
but Sergeant Marjaka did not care. He ordered the soldier closest to him,
soldier second class Titus Kobogou, to shoot the minister,'' an eyewitness
recounted.
''The bullet wounded the minister in the left part of his abdomen, and
he died instantly. At the same time the patrol fired shots at the people
(among them children) who were praying, killing 10 others,'' added the
eyewitness.
The Indonesian government has responded to the two ACFOA reports by
sending a team from the National Commission on Human Rights to the site to
investigate.
The commission, which was not taken seriously when the government set it
up recently, was widely praised recently for a report published earlier this
year that implicated the Indonesian military in several assassinations in
East Timor.
Clementino dos Reis Amaral, a member of the commission, has already told
the Indonesian press that he was convinced that the statements in the ACFOA
were true but he said that nobody has confirmed the involvement of Freeport
security.
Indonesian sources say that the local people believe there is little
difference between the military and Freeport security.
''The heavy military presence in and around Tembagapura is for the
purpose of guarding Freeport operations. For local people there is little
difference between Freeport security and the military,'' says the source.
Others point out that Freeport is also guilty of destroying vast areas of
the local environment. ''The dumping of tailings (mining waste) into the
river has caused flooding, re-routing of the rivers, destruction of the sago
forests and indigenous hunting grounds,'' charges Emmy Hafield of WALHI, an
Indonesian environmental group in Jakarta.
WLAHI recently sued the government alleging that it had failed to follow
national environmental laws when it issued mining permits to Freeport.
In this country, Freeport has been listed by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, for emitting the largest amount of toxic chemicals of any
industry.(ENDS/IPS/PC/95)