The Jakarta Post, February 28, 2006
Protesters want Freeport to stop operation in Papua
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Jayapura
Police used a water cannon and fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who
gathered in Jakarta on Monday to denounce U.S. gold mining giant Freeport, saying
its mine in Papua province had brought no benefits to local residents.
In the rally outside the of! fices of the Indonesian unit of U.S. company
Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc., 500 protesters smashed the ground-floor
windows of the Plaza 89 office building in Kuningan, South Jakarta, but none reached
Freeport's offices on the fifth and seventh floors.
A policeman and a protester were hurt during the rally, a Reuters photographer on the
scene said.
"Close Freeport! Close Freeport!" chanted the protesters, who briefly clashed with
police before authorities brought in the water cannon, AP reported.
Authorities succeeded in calming the protesters, who responded by sitting
cross-legged in front of the high-rise building, but still refused to leave.
Meanwhile, in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, some 500 students marched
from Cendrawasih University to the provincial council building Monday, demanding the
provincial administration stop Freeport's operations. The students also d! emanded the
release of Papuan students held after they vandalized Plaza 89 on Thursday.
The detained Papuan students went on a predawn rampage inside the building
Thursday, setting fire to a travel agency on the ground floor. There were no casualties
in the incident.
Responding to the protesters' demand, the chairman of the council's human rights
commission, Yance Kayame, said the administration and the council did not have the
authority to stop Freeport's operation; only the central government had such power.
He said the council could only issue recommendations to the House of
Representatives. "We support the students' aspirations, but the Papua provincial
council can only issue a recommendation on the matter to be delivered to the House
of Representatives."
In the town of Timika, near the Grasberg mine operated by Freeport, about 100
protesters staged a rally but did not disrupt mining operations, which resumed
Saturday afternoon after being suspended last week following protests outside the
mine.
The Grasberg mine -- the largest gold mine in the world and the third largest copper
mine, which opened in 1973 -- has long had an uneasy relationship with locals, some
of whom are desperately poor and argue that they should be able to retrieve and sell
tiny amounts of gold and copper from waste rock dumped by the mine, AP reported.
Freeport says the practice is illegal and dangerous.
Coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, Usman
Hamid, said earlier the regional government and legislators were partly to blame for
the frequent disputes between locals and the mining company, because they had not
striven to overcome misunderstandings between the communities.
Photo:
UNDERMINING THE MINE: Protesters denounce U.S. gold mining giant Freeport
during a protest outside its offices in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Monday. (JP/R.
Berto Wedhatama)
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