The angry throng of hundreds of Amungne, Dana and other tribes besieged the
airport at the mining settlement of Timika by the Grasberg mountains - in
a land controlled by the Indonesian army 4000k west of Jakarta. Here
Freeport and RTZ are levelling a snow clad mountain rich in gold, silver
and copper. The local inhabitants demanded to see Jim Bob Moffett, the
Chairman of Freeport, who was flying in from New Orleans.
The tribespeople said that if he would not see him, if there were no
negotiations, they would close the mine down no matter it being the world's
biggest gold mine and third biggest copper. Their protest was at first
frustrated. The company found a way to smuggle Moffett in without using the
airport. When they learnt he was at the Sheraton Hotel they surged towards
it but found it protected by a heavily armed wall of Indonesian military.
Moffett eventually agreed to receive a delegation.
On these negotiations could hang the future fate of this land inhabited by
over 200 tribes of very ancient cultures, alien not only to the West but
also to the majority of Indonesians. These people are akin to the Papua-New
Guineans of the adjacent state with dark skin and frizzy hair, not at all
like the Indonesians of Java. The remoteness of their land from other
societies has meant that their cultural inheritance has remained intact.
So too has their land. They live in the second largest rainforest after the
Amazon, a forest in part protected from easy access by the highest mountain
range between the Himalayas and the Andes. It is because one of these
snow-clad 14,000 foot peaks has been found to be made up of the world's
biggest single gold deposits as well as of much copper and gold that
Freeport and RTZ have come into their land.
Forty tribal elders under a heavily armed military escort were allowed into
the hotel to meet with Moffett. They brought with them the local Catholic
priest. Moffett on his part was surrounded by Army Generals including Brig.
General Prabowa, brother- in -law of President Suharto of Indonesia, head
of the feared Kompass special troops. Also in attendance was the Chief of
the provincial legislative body.
It was not like any other corporate meeting. Moffett, from the deep South
bible belt of New Orleans, opened it with a quotation from the bible. He
said his left cheek had been slapped, so he was now proffering his right
cheek. He said the situation at the mine was like to that of a boil. It had
now burst. Blood had come out. He tearfully said he would treat the injury
and he was ready to work with the people and completely change the
structure of the mine.
Then one of the tribal elders, Mama Yosepha, who had been imprisoned by the
army in a Freeport container last year, spoke out. She said in her Amungme
language "My son Moffett, in the past I put you inside my noken (a native
woven bag used by women to carry babies and piglets), I took you with me
wherever I went, but I did not realise that you suck my blood until it is
all drained and I remain only bones without flesh. Now, I pick you out of
my noken and will throw you far away.' She threw her bag from her and as
her words were translated the audience were shocked and tense.
Jim Bob Moffett, again in tears, replied: ' Mama, is there not any way we
can have peace. Mama Yosepha remained silent. Then the Executive Director
of the Amungme Tribal Council, Andreas Anggaibak, spoke out and said he
spoke in the name of the whole 'koteka' community (the koteka is a thin
long gourd widely used to cover the penis in Irian Jaya) "The Freeport
operation should be shut down." Anggaibak then left the meeting. He says
that Brig. General Prabowo followed him out and asked: 'What do you mean by
closing Freeport? Do you want to go to war? "Anggaibak answered: ' No
sir, we do not want war. We want to negotiate with Freeport.' After a
further conversation they returned to the meeting.
Jim Moffett then said to Mama Yosepha: ' Mama, can I be put back inside
your nokia?' She replied: 'When I have thrown something, I will not pick
it back up again - unless you promise to fulfil our written demands.'
They then presented Moffett with ten demands including the dismantling of
the Freeport Security Service, improvement of living conditions, the
employment of local people, compensation for certain past environmental
damage and for Freeport in future to negotiate all use of tribal land
directly with their Tribal Council. It was then agreed that Moffett would
answer these demands in 30 days time. In the meantime the mine, shut for
the previous 3 days, would resume operations.
Freeport has long been aware of this and has made some efforts to
compensate by building medical facilities and houses for the local
inhabitants. But it has remained dependent on a military garrison supplied
to the mine by the Indonesian government for protection against the OPM
independence movement. For the Indonesians it is a golden prize - and is
to be protected at all costs.
However in recent months since world wide publicity was given to killings
and torture inflicted on the local inhabitants by its military garrison,
Freeport has tried to distance itself from the armed forces, painting the
vehicles it lends the military a distinctive colour so they will not be
seen as Freeport vehicles.
The result of this seems to be that the military have left Freeport to fend
for itself in dealing with the tribes. The military showed unaccustomed
restraint when the rioting inhabitants wrecked Freeport buildings, airport
facilities and vehicles. President Suharto placed the responsibility of
improving relations firmly onto Freeport/RTZ's shoulders when he recently
said at the opening of a new housing complex at the mine, saying "the
absence of the people's support will obstruct the mining operations.'
In 1977 when the tribes attacked the mine blowing up its slurry pipeline
through which the ore was sent to the port, the military responded by
strafing from the air many villages killing up to 2000 inhabitants. A
leader of this attack was Kelly Kwalik who is currently holding 11 hostages
including 4 British citizens. He said of Freeport 'The mountains are our
women. Freeport by taking our mountain is taking a bride - without paying
a bride-price.' Among these people a woman must be paid for with pigs and
other prized goods.
The major environmental problem faced by the mine is fundamental to its
design. As they demolish this mountain for its riches, they have 130,000
tonnes of waste rock to dispose of every day. The investment of £1.1
billion from RTZ is to be used in part to expand the mine so that in future
it will dump 184,000 tonnes a day. They have chosen to remove this waste by
dumping it into the fast flowing Aiwa river system that plunges from the
14,000 feet peaks down to the coastal plains some 70 miles below where it
spreads out into an extensive delta system of meandering rivers and lakes
rich in all forms of life. But the waste is now producing heavy silting in
this system, flooding more and more of this forest, killing it. So far over
15 square miles of the forest has died from drowning. Freeport has cut the
dead trees to make this less obvious but swathes of dead vegetation are
evident to all visitors flying in.
Since some 240 square miles of lowland rainforest will be totally
destroyed if no steps were taken to protect it, Freeport has commenced a
program of building, Mississippi-style levees along the sides of the Aiwa
river system to stop it flooding the plains in the hope this will limit the
damage to 50 square miles. So far this has not proved completely
successful. This is a land of torrential rains and as fast as the levees
are built, the river undermines the banks.
This damage is inevitable if the mine continues to dump all its waste into
the river system as current plans are to dump practically the whole
mountain they are mining into it in powdered form. Freeport has calculated
that to remove this volume of rock any other way would require a fleet of
over 4,100 heavy trucks. The company maintains that the waste rock dumped
is chemically safe. But the only independent environmental scientists so
far to inspect the project, from the US government's Overseas Private
Investment Corporation, expressed serious concern last year over toxic
heavy metals released from the mine waste.
A lake next to the mine at the top of the mountain has been so severely
damaged by copper sulphide leached from the mine works that it is now rocks
largely dead and a bright turquoise hue.. It is now being filled in by
Freeport. According to a 1994 Freeport study, one of the rivers affected by
the project, the Minajerwi, contains levels of copper that exceed US
standards for aquatic life.
The indigenous people are in no doubt about this damage...
©95 Janine Roberts
Tuesday, March 19, 1996
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