According to Papua New Guinea Mine Watch (PNMW) Freeport has been directly or indirectly responsible for gross human rights abuses in West Papua since it was first granted a highly favourable contract to exploit gold and copper in the days of the Suharto dictatorship.

These abuses include torture, illegal detentions, and killings.

Freeport has given $79.1 million to police and military forces in the past 10 years, according to a group called Indonesian Corruption Watch. Most of that funding has been through in-kind contributions such as food, housing, fuel, and travel costs, but officers have also received direct payments. A report by the NGO Global Witness shows that, between 2001 and 2003, Freeport gave nearly $250,000 to a controversial commander who in 1999 led military action in East Timor, where soldiers killed more than a thousand people.

According to Rev Socrates Yoman, a leading human rights advocate, Freeport is like an ATM for the security forces - when there is conflict they can be sure of money.

It is alleged that the mine has destroyed a mountain considered sacred by the indigenous Amungme people and displaced thousands, destroying their forest-based subsistence lifestyle in the process.

PNMW says Freeport uses a system for disposing of the mine waste tailings in the river - outlawed almost everywhere else in the world. Over 200,000 tonnes of waste a day are deposited in the river leading to the creation of vast dead zone where nothing grows.

Source

• The Jakarta Globe
• Papua New Guinea Mine Watch
• The Atlantic
• Image: The Atlantic

Seven others were critically wounded when officers tried to stop striking workers from going into a facility at the mining complex on Monday.

About 8,000 workers have been on strike for almost a month at the US-owned Freeport McMoran copper and gold mine.

Human rights activists and workers say it's time the Indonesian Government intervened, to help negotiate a peaceful outcome.

In June 2011 The Alliance of Churches in the Land of Papua, PGGP, called on the government to revise the work contract concluded with the mining company, Freeport.

‘The presence of this foreign company in the district of Mimika has not resulted in any improvements in the conditions of the local people,' said Wiem Maury, secretary of the PGGP. He said that in addition to this, the very presence of Freeport in the area has always been a very serious problem for the people.

‘The welfare of the people who are the true owners of the rich natural resource continue to be a matter of great concern. Nor is there any guarantee about security in the area either,' he added..

Source

• Radio Australia
• West Papua Media Alerts
• Image: metalnewstream.com