Tag: Grasberg mine

Murdoch Refugee Bashing – ROCKING THE BOAT: THE FACTS & REBUTTAL

Louise Byrne, Australia West Papua Association (Melbourne)


This article was twice presented, twice ignored to The Australian Weekend Magazine ‘Letters’ section.

The 43 West Papuan asylum seekers canoe after landingnear Weipa, Cape York, Jan 2006 (Photo: Damien Baker, theangle.org)

Rocking the boat (The Weekend Australian Magazine 9/7/2011) attempts to bolster the legal case for diluting the post-asylum rights of unaccompanied minors to family reunion. The Murdoch journalist and her angry informants prosecute the offensive by nit-picking the effort of one West Papuan parent—whose sons arrived in a traditional outrigger canoe in 2006—to remove his twelve-year-old daughter from the war zone as well. This 3,500-word construct will be no doubt bower-birded by lawyers involved in the Supreme Court case in September. The reading public however needs to be aware that it is full of unfounded generalizations and misleading information, and succeeds, with Machiavellian ease, in lampooning the West Papuans long and costly struggle for human rights and democracy … and yes, indeed, their very survival.

The Papuan parent cited is heavily misrepresented as a ‘savvy, middle-class immigrant aided by lawyers’ who sent his sons to Australia as an ‘advance party to enhance the prospect of family reunion’. In fact, the documented intent of this parent in putting his children on the boat was to ensure their survival. He is a leading Protestant priest and independence leader who after years of incarceration as a political prisoner will never—short of independence—be free of the republic’s notorious intelligence agents. He and his wife, also a pastor, run a Christian college in the highlands, providing indigenous adolescents with a curriculum and standard of education otherwise unattainable. Their sons, on their own initiative, called upon family reunion principles to deliver their teenage sister from a militarized hellhole where the rape of Indigenous girls is almost a rite of passage. None of the other West Papuan refugees from 2006—whether unaccompanied minor or adult—have made application for family reunion.

The article imputes that the West Papuan who organized the canoe of asylum seekers in 2006 is a people smuggler (‘parents of children as young as 11 had paid for them to make the crossing’), and furthermore ‘coached’ them on how to report to Australian immigration officers. This Papuan is, in fact, another committed activist and independence leader, also with years of experience as a political prisoner. The article conveniently ignores the Howard Government’s People Smuggling Taskforce, which met on thirteen occasions between 16 January and 13 April 2006 before closing its investigation, satisfied that no money was paid to any organizers of the trip. (Hansard, 22 May 2006, which also mentions the taskforce included the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Australian Federal Police, Attorney-General’s Dept, Customs, Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Office of National Assessments). To the allegation of ‘coaching’, the fact of 564,126 West Papuans ‘missing’ since 1962 (Jim Elmslie, University of Sydney, 2007) would mean that few of the living need advice about persecution and human rights violations. (Any foreigners who do should consult the independent media portal www.westpapuamedia.info, or New York based blog West Papua: exposing a massacre (www.theactivistwriter.com), or the recent Australian documentary Strange Birds in Paradise).

Even if The Australian isn’t interested in the plight of the West Papuan people (who in 2010 have an annual growth rate of 1.84% compared to the non-Papuan of 10.82%), it should address issues that intersect with Australia’s national interest. The militarized Islamisation of the territory as a tool of intensifying colonization, for example, correlating with unprecedented levels of Wahabbist cash and Islamic investment that criss-crosses a nexus of radical Islam, the military-intelligence ‘security’ network, and clandestine cells of fundamentalism in the Indonesian civil service. Should we also not be concerned by the refusal of the Australian Federal Police to release its report into the assassination in July 2009 of Drew Grant, a young Australian employed at the Freeport mine? What about the AFP community-training squadron getting kicked out of Indonesia in 2009 (despite Australia’s contribution of $36.8m to the development of the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation)? Then there’s the Indonesian government’s supply and training of PNG police and military since 2006, and its own commandos training in the jungles of Fiji since 2010.


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ROCKING THE BOAT

Rebuttal, Pam Curr, Asylum Seekers Resource Centre in Melbourne

 The article that appeared in this weekend’s The Australian is yet another negative asylum seeker story in typical Murdoch media fashion. I would like to straighten the record on a few factual errors. Murdoch media do not worry about such things but since they quote me, I do.

 I did not ring Frances Walton immediately after The Age published her letter on 8 June. I read the letter and thought—what a pity to write about a small group and one individual experience as if it was emblematic of all child asylum seekers experience. I knew how the letter would be received by those who wish to believe it or those who do not know otherwise, but it is a free country and we all have the write to speak our minds. End of episode.

Kate Legge rang me on the 20th June. At the same time I was alerted that the Australian was looking at running a story about boat children following a letter to The Age. I knew then that The Australian, never likely to overlook a potential negative line on refugees, had run Frances Walton to earth to run the boat children exposé and it was unlikely to be favourable.

It was only at this point that I rang Frances and asked her if she was aware that The Australian had a particular negative line on refugees and that her experience with a few children and families from one background would be likely to be written in such a way that it would generalise the experience of all unaccompanied minors.   I knew that Frances had experience only with the West Papuan children and none with Afghan Hazara teenagers or others. I made a point of saying that it was her right to say what she liked but to be aware that her words could be used against a broader group.

I told Kate Legge that I knew many teenagers who had come here as unaccompanied minors, particularly from Afghanistan, and that most of the boys I knew had no fathers and some no parents at all after Taliban and Pashtun attacks. I explained that they had come here after Mothers, Uncles or Family friends had helped them to escape because they were at risk. Clearly, since they were not reported, the experiences of this group of kids were not as interesting.

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Freeport Indonesia, Union Pay Talks Enter Third Day

Grasberg mine
Image via Wikipedia

JAKARTA, July 22 (Reuters) – Negotiations between Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold and its workers in Indonesia over pay entered the third
day on Friday, industry sources said, as the mining giant reported
losses of copper and gold after a strike at its massive mine.

Chief executive Richard Adkerson said on Thursday the aggregate impact
of production lost during an eight-day strike at the Grasberg mine in
Papua province was 35 million pounds of copper and 60,000 ounces of
gold.

Adkerson also said the strike, which ended on July 13 and production
resumed a day later, led to a temporary suspension of all mining,
milling and concentration shipments from the mine.

“The talks are ongoing but the details are not disclosed to the
public,” said an industry source in Jakarta, who has seen Freeport’s
notice on the talks.

“The meeting is attended by PT Freeport Indonesia’s union team and
witnessed by representatives from the company’s management team.”

A Freeport spokesman in Jakarta did not reply to an email inquiry.

Union leaders started pay talks with the U.S. miner on Wednesday in
the Indonesian part of New Guinea, as they push for a doubling of
salaries for workers earning $1.50 per hour, saying other Freeport
workers around the world get 10 times that.

The company is negotiating with the union on a contract due to be
renewed in October.

The New York-listed firm reported a doubling in second-quarter
profits, citing soaring metal prices and higher copper sales than
expected at its North American mines, but said that costs are creeping
up and it expects to sell less copper in the third quarter.

That outlook, combined with a fall in copper price on Thursday and
some analysts’ concerns with the nagging uncertainties over the labour
situation in Indonesia, led to a more than 1 percent drop in Freeport
share price.

Gold was steady around $1,589 an ounce on Friday, not far from a
record around $1,609 hit on Tuesday. Three-month copper on the London
Metal Exchange edged down to around $9,650 a tonne.(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan and Samuel Wanda; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)

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Freeport employees want human rights violator sacked

JUBI, 18 July 2011Following the violation of human rights that were perpetrated by personnel working for Freeport Indonesia,  there have been calls for the perpetrator, Nurcahyo to be sacked by the company.

‘We dont want that person to go on working here because he is bound to continue with his habits of discrediting indigenous Papuans.  We have experienced these things because of some trivial mistakes. Does the company want a repetition of recent actions,’ said one worker who didn’t want his name to be identified, when asked to confirm the action.

The matter was said to be closed after the person concerned was given a second warning.  For some of the staff, a very simple thing can result in the worker being sacked without mercy.

It appears that the person involved in this latest case is a superintendent  working at the Marine Section of the company named Nurcahyo who committed these human rights violations which are forbidden within the company. When there is clear evidence that someone has committed such things, that person is immediately sacked. Yet in this case, the man in charge of the human rights department, SemiYapsawaki, was simply given a second warning.

There have been many cases like this, according to JUBI, which recently triggered a strike at the company.

‘We want this person to be sent home because this is not the first time that he behaved in such a way. We hope that the management will take action against this person who can cause further major problems  in the workforce,’ said this source.

Attempts to contact the management, including the Manager, Juarsa, were not successful as he did not respond on his hand phone.

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STATE LOSING Rp 30 TRILLION BECAUSE OF FREEPORT

JUBI, 16 July 2011

Member of Commission IV of the Indonesian Parliament, Markus Nari, has reported that Indonesia has suffered the loss of Rp 30 trillion as a result of Freeport Indonesia ‘s failure to work on the basis of a licensing permit to operate within forestry areas known as Regulation in lieu of Law (Perpu) Ijin Pinjam Pakai Kawasan Hutan, despite two official requests from the Indonesian forestry minister.

Commission member Markus Nari, made this statement during a visit to Timika, to see the tailings waste spilling into the Ajkwa River. He pointed out that all mining companies which operates within forestry regions must be in possession of an IPPKH. ‘The company has been pressed twice by the forestry minister to obtain this license but has until now failed to do so. Instead of being requested for a third time, the company should be sent a very strong warning,’ he said.

According to information received by JUBI, Freeport Indonesia is using of 202,000 ha of land, much of which is adjacent to the Lorenz National Park. There are  altogether thirteen companies operating within these protected forestry areas, including Freeport.

Nari said that he had received reports from local communities during his visit to the area that the forests had been damaged, while silt had affected the depth of the river and the nearby sea.

He said that the team from parliament and the forestry ministry  had paid close attention to Freeport’s utilisation of forestry areas,  and had seen the impact of the tailings in silting the estuary and the sea.

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Faleomavaega receives Humanitarian Award for Defense of Human Rights in West Papua

Washington, D.C. —FALEOMAVAEGA RECEIVES HUMANITARIAN AWARD FOR DEFENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN WEST PAPUA

Congressman Faleomavaega announced today that the West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) has named him the 2011 recipient of the John Rumbiak Human Rights Defenders Award.  Faleomavaega was presented the award on Thursday July 7, 2011.

In honoring Faleomavaega, WPAT stated:

The West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) is pleased to announce that it is awarding the 2011 “John Rumbiak Human Rights Defenders Award” to the Honorable Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-AS), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Congressmember Faleomavaega has been an articulate and effective advocate for the defense of human rights in West Papua, and has long worked for a peaceful resolution of the serious problems confronting Papuans.

His extensive knowledge regarding West Papua and his manifest sincerity and good will have enabled him to draw on the respect accorded him by his Congressional colleagues and members of successive Administrations to alert them and the U.S. public more broadly to justice, good governance and development concerns in West Papua.

On September 22, 2010, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, Congressmember Faleomavaega convened the first hearing in the history of the U.S. Congress to include testimony from West Papua’s traditional and religious leaders. The hearing, Crimes Against Humanity: When Will Indonesia’s Military Be Held Accountable for Deliberate and Systematic Abuses in West Papua, also included testimony from scholars and administration officials from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense.

Driven by a sense of personal responsibility to carry forward the work of his Samoan relatives who are buried in West Papua and in honor of all those who have lived the struggle, Congressmember Faleomavaega continues to do all he can to hold the Indonesian government accountable so that a better way forward may be found for and on behalf of the people of West Papua.

Past recipients of the award include Carmel Budiardjo (UK) and TAPOL (2008); John M. Miller (U.S.) and the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) (2009), and Andreas Harsono (Indonesia) of Human Rights Watch (2010).

The award includes a plaque and a financial prize which Congressmember Faleomavaega has directed be donated to a charity selected by him. The award is named in honor of Papuan John Rumbiak, a renowned champion of human rights and founder of WPAT.

“I am humbled by this award,” Faleomavaega said.  “I do not feel worthy of it, and this is why I have donated the prize money to the Papuan Customary Council (Dewan Adat Papua) in honor of the men, women and children of West Papua who are the true heroes.”

“Over the years, the men, women and children of West Papua have suffered at the hands of Indonesia’s brutal military and police forces.  In fact, Indonesia’s military has committed indisputable crimes against humanity through the murder, torture and rape of more than 100,000 West Papuans.”

“It should also be noted that Freeport Mining company, now located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, was the first foreign company to do business with Indonesian President Suharto, one of the most brutal dictators of the 20th century.  Freeport’s association with Suharto led to Freeport operating the Grasberg mine in West Papua — one of the biggest gold and copper mines in the world.”

“With little regard for the people of West Papua, Freeport has callously stripped West Papua of its natural resources and pays Papuan workers less than $1.80 per day, or about $0.20 cents per hour.  Papuan workers went on strike in protest saying their counterparts working for other units of Freeport operations around the world are paid approximately $15 per hour.  All Papuan workers are asking is to be paid at about $3 per hour.”

“To put this in perspective, the CEO of Freeport was paid almost $40 million in 2010 alone.  In my opinion, this kind of disparity is shameful.  An American company should know better, and do better.  And until Freeport makes it right and stops exploiting Papuan workers, I will make my views known on the House floor for the sake of history and for the sake of the American public in hopes that Freeport will one day be held accountable for the environmental and economic horrors it has wrought in West Papua.”

“For history’s sake, I also want to commend past winners of the John Rumbiak Human Rights Defenders Award, including Carmel Budiardjo, the 2008 winner, who founded and has chaired TAPOL since the 1970s.  TAPOL (which means political prisoner in Indonesian) is a small UK-based NGO that campaigns for political prisoners and for human rights in general in Indonesia and East Timor.  Carmel Budiardjo was herself a political prisoner, in the late 1960’s at the time that the dictator Suharto came to power.  She was imprisoned for three years and then founded TAPOL upon returning to the UK in 1971.  She won the ‘Right Livelihood Award’ in 1995 and has several times been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Carmel is now 86 but still very active.”

“John Miller and the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, the 2009 winner, has long been involved in human rights advocacy in East Timor and Indonesia.  John Miller is the National Coordinator for ETAN.”

“Andreas Harsono, the 2010 winner, is an Indonesian journalist and human rights advocate who in 2010 worked closely with Human Rights Watch, particularly on West Papua.  He is still associated with HRW but also is an independent journalist and human rights advocate.”

“I also commend my good friend, John Rumbiak, a West Papuan human rights advocate, who has worn out his life in the service of his fellowman.  I wish John a speedy recovery, and my thoughts and prayers are with him.”

“Once more, I thank WPAT for the work it is doing to champion the cause of West Papua, and I share this honor with all those engaged in the struggle,” Faleomavaega concluded.

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