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Investing in violence and ecological destructionMultinational companies operating in West Papua are locked into an uneasy relationship with the Indonesian military who facilitate exploitation by killing anyone who gets in the way of profits. Plunder by multinational corporations results in massive ecological destruction. These corporations are either Australian owned, part Australian owned or based in Australia. Freeport In December 1994, covered in mud and naked except for the traditional highland penis gourd, Amungme tribal chief Tuarek Narkime walked the long road from his village in Banti up to Tembagapura, the Freeport company town. Confronting Freeport officials, he said simply, 'Gentlemen, I am angry with God. Why has He created such beautiful mountains, valleys and rivers, rich with minerals and placed us - the indigenous peoples - here in this place that attracts so many people from around the world to come, exploit our resources, and kill us?' Freeport McMoRan, the United States based company which owns and operates the gargantuan gold and copper mine makes over a million dollars U.S profit per day, and its CEO, Bob Moffett is one of the highest paid in the industry. The company is one of Indonesia's 'largest corporate taxpayers, among the biggest private employers and one of the top exporters'. Freeport started operations in 1967, two years before the question of sovereignty was even resolved. Freeport is literally moving a mountain to mine gold and copper. This mountain is the indigenous Amungme people's ancestral grandmother. Freeport has cut off her head and is now digging out her stomach. Her remains are strewn across the landscape. Rock waste fills two highland valleys. In 1999 a massive rock pile collapsed into Lake Wamego, causing a tidal wave that killed four workers. The rivers are the Amungme's ancestral Grandmothers milk but tailings have poisoned the water and destroyed over 100,000 square kilometers of rainforest. The forest is not only the Amungme and Kamoro's people ancestral land, it is also their livelihood. Experts believe that forest die back as a result of poisoning will increase dramatically. Tailings are deposited into the Aghawaghon, Otomona and Ajkwa rivers at the staggering rate of over 200,000 tonnes a day. To place this amount in context, consider that BHP's controversial Ok Tedi mine - which was later abandoned by the company because of environmental damage - dumped tailings into the Fly River at the rate of over 80,000 tonnes per day. The Indonesian military provides most of the security at the mine, supported by Freeport's security personnel. Over 220 people have been killed by either the Indonesian military or by Freeport security personnel. No-one has been held to account. According to Indonesias National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), human rights violations 'are directly connected to [the TNI] & acting as protection for the mining business of Freeport.' Because the TNI is so intimately involved with Freeport, the Amungme people have concluded that 'the root cause of the human rights violations is Freeport'. To continue to extract these resources, multinational companies do not significantly depend on the people whose land they exploit, but on the support of employees, contractors, unions, suppliers, people who transport supplies, shareholders, investment fund managers, international financial institutions and export credit, finance and insurance agencies as well as governments and public opinion. This relationship has transnational dimensions. The Freeport mine is significantly dependent on Australia. Freeport's supply base is in Cairns. The provision of supplies for the mine and three company towns is coordinated by the Cairns-based 100% owned Australian purveying company, International Purveying Incorporated (IPI), who buy from 'some 740 Australian companies & including 296 in Cairns'. According to the chair of the Cairns Chamber of Commerce, Freeport (through I.P.I) is the largest purchaser of goods in Cairns generating at least AUS $50-70 million dollars worth of business for local companies each year. Fruit and vegetables for Freeport employees are supplied by Tong Sing, a Cairns based supplier. Beef is supplied from cattle stations in the Northern Territory, some of which are believed to be owned by the Bakrie Brothers, an Indonesian conglomerate that has 10% shares in PT Freeport Indonesia. The vast bulk of these goods, along with a range of materials necessary for maintaining the infrastructure of the mine and the three townships that supply the mine, are transported to West Papua every ten days by Freeport's supply ship, the Java Sea. In 1997, the MUA locked horns with the Australian government and Patrick Stevedores over attempts to de-unionise Australian wharves. The MUA purposefully chose the Java Sea as the boat to strike against because of its relationship with Freeport. This strike was successful. The MUA also singled out Freeport for action during the TNI orchestrated militia violence in East Timor in September 1999. In addition to refusing to load Indonesian cargo, particularly those with high-level links to the TNI, Newcastle MUA members also refused to load grinding balls destined for Freeport on board the Arktis Fantasy. Freight is also supplied by air from Darwin and Cairns. In addition, most of the expatriate employees including several hundred contractors regularly fly into either Darwin or Cairns on recreational leave. Freeport is also heavily supported by the Australian British mining giant, Rio Tinto, a company whose name is 'synonymous with abuse of social, labour, environmental and human rights wherever they operate' says mining watchdog the Mineral Policy Institute. Rio Tinto holds an effective 20% stake in Freeport's West Papua operations through its 13% equity stake in Freeport McMoRan. In addition, Rio Tinto holds a 40% of the Grasberg deposit. The major Australian unions associated with Freeport are the MUA, who handle freight to and from the mine, the CFMEU, whose members work at the mine, and the TWU, who service flights from Cairns to Timika and Darwin to Timika. According to an Australian Government report, 'Freeport ships all of its supplies from Australia through Cairns.' Mining companies such as Freeport are also heavily dependent on large injections of capital from investment funds, financial institutions, and support from insurance agencies and export credit agencies to begin, expand and continue resource extraction. Increasingly this finance is being politicised. For example, in 1994, as a result of widespread environmental and human rights concerns, the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) cancelled Freeport's political risk insurance. According to Hugh Morgan, the CEO of the Australian-based mining transnational Western Mining Corporation (WMC), financial restraints caused by the increasing requirement to be culturally and environmentally sensitive coupled with the increasing difficulty of securing capital, 'are effectively 'starving' the mining industry of funds'.
Gag Island is an underwater paradise. On this 12 square kilometer island surrounded by fringing coral reefs, BHP-Billiton plans to establish an open pit mine on two-thirds of the island and refuses to rule out dumping toxic waste directly into the ocean, a practice outlawed in Australia. The other options for waste disposal include strip mining the island section by section or building a tailings dam in a small valley in the north of the island. This valley is where Gag Islanders plant their food gardens. Gag is situated in the ecologically diverse Raja Ampat archipelago located approximately 150 km North-West of Sorong. Gambir, the only village on the island has a population of around 600 people who depend on their gardens and fishing for food. Recent marine surveys in the Raja Ampat archipelago have discovered hundreds of fish, mollusc and coral species previously unknown to science. Local people have been told little about the company's intentions. The mine has been held up by legislation that classified Gag Island as a protective forest. BHP-Billiton successfully lobbied for this legislation to be overturned and the company looks set to begin operations. Built around Bintuni Bay, the site of the South East Asia's second largest mangrove forest, the US$2 billion Tangguh ('all powerful') project will involve three gas fields, a processing plant, accommodation complex ('new town'), airstrip, pipeline and port facilities. There will be at least two offshore gas platforms in the Bintuni Bay, which will feed LNG via pipeline, to the processing plant on the southern side of the Bay. BP expects the project to be operating by 2006, and to supply gas for at least 30 years. There are also another potential eight gas fields in the Bay. Activists hold serious concerns that, like Freeport, the project will result in grave human rights violations as the Indonesian military engineers 'incidents' to justify their presence and lever economic benefits. General Mahidin Simbolan, who established militia in East Timor, recently visited the mine site uninvited with a posse of armed men. Activists are closely monitoring the company's social and environmental impact. BP is hoping the project will be a demonstration of socially and environmentally responsible resource extraction. Critics point to the companies past record in Colombia and elsewhere as well as the fact that Pertamina, the Indonesian State Oil and Gas company ultimately has the final say in what goes ahead in Bintuni Bay. In Conclusion |