More Papuans want to work for Freeport mining

At least 400 demonstrators from the Amungme and Kamoro Job-seekers Solidarity orgnisation rode public buses from the Mimika regency capital of Timika to the Nemangkawai Mining Institute's office demanding that they be given priority for employment at the PT Freeport Indonesia mining operations in Papua province, Markus Makur reported for The Jakarta Post.

"As far as we can see, PT Freeport Indonesia and its subsidiaries have disregarded the local people. Now, in our rally we demand that Memangkawai employs local people at PT Freeport," said Gerson Meno Imbir, the head of the protest group. "Now in the era of special autonomy, indigenous people should be given priority in PT Freeport recruitment," he said.

Deputy chief of the solidarity group Pontius Kelanangame questioned the achievements of the Mimika Manpower and Resettlement Office and said that he felt nothing had been done by the office to help the local people. "We want to be involved in development in Mimika regency rather than simply being made development objects. We support progress in Mimika regency but please pay attention to the indigenous people," he said.

Yusuf Tapa, one of Nemangkawai Mining Institute's staff members, said his office had received notification of the aspirations of job-seekers from Amungme and Kamoro as well as five other tribes. Nemangkawai, he said, has been committed to recruiting at least 57 workers per month for employment at PT Freeport's underground, operations and mechanic sections and another 120 have joined training sessions as apprentices.

"Nemangkawai has contributed greatly to the seven tribes in terms of the development of worker's skills. Those learning enough skills will be transferred to PT Freeport," he said. From 26 to 30 March there will be a recruitment test for local apprentices in Mimika. If they pass the test they will be trained, Yusuf said. If not they will be given another chance to try again at a later date, he added.

Repair work on Timika airport to start in April

PT Freeport Indonesia subsidiary, Airfast Aviation Facilities Company, which manages the Moses Kilangin International Airport in Timika, Papua province, will commence a 4-5 month repair work program on its runway in April. However arrivals and departures of Hercules transports and Boeing 737-200 jetliners will not be affected.

According to the Timika air base commander Lt. Col Bambang, the work includes a seven-centimetre overlay on a 200-metre cracked section of the 2,395-metre runway. "Overlaying runways periodically is compulsory for the sake of flight safety, especially for Moses Kilangin which is an international airport. Cracks on the runway could cause punctures," he told Antara newsagency.

Papua's Mimika reports on new foreign gold miners

An unnamed US mining company is now opening a new gold mining in Mimika regency, Papua Province, the head of the regency's Mining and Energy Agency, Oktovianus Kambu, told Antara newsagency. Exploration had "reached the fourth or the final stage," he said.

"In the future, Mimika regency will not only rely on gold mining carried out by PT Freeport Indonesia which has been operating since 1968," he said, adding that other mining resources like coal and oil were "always waiting" for exploration in the regency.

Freeport's payments to Indonesia and Papua

Freeport Indonesia, the Indonesian subsidiary of US-headquartered Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc, operates the world-class gold and copper mine in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua and may be Indonesia's largest taxpayer. "From January to December 2006, Freeport Indonesia paid its financial obligations to the government of Indonesia in the sum of US$ 1.6 billion," a company statement quoted by AFP stated.

It said US$ 1.29 billion of the total comprised corporate, employee income and other taxes. Dividends accounted for US$ 159 million and royalties for US$ 146 million. Freeport Indonesia has paid US$ 5.1 billion to the Indonesian government since 1992, according to the statement. Taxes accounted for US$ 4.1 billion of the figure, with the remainder comprised of royalties and dividends.

The company said Freeport Indonesia had also invested US$ 5 billion dollars to develop company infrastructure and US$ 500 million in social facilities. It had also generated direct employment for 9,000 people in 2006, some 27 percent of whom were indigenous Papuans, the statement said.

It added the company had provided 10,700 jobs indirectly last year, for example for contract workers or employees at partner firms and had purchased domestic goods and services worth US$ 4.3 billion.

Awakening "sleeping giant" of a prosperous Papua

The Papua provincial governnment will focus its development programs on rural areas where the largest number of poor live, the Governor Barnabas Suebu has announced. He said as 80 percent of Papuans live in remote villages in poor conditions, if not absolute poverty, his administration will provide each of the 2,700 villages in his province and 1,164 villages in West Papua province with Rp 100 million (about US$11,100). "This is not a gift from Santa Claus, it must be accounted for," he said.

The Papua administration currently oversees autonomy funds for both Papua and West Papua provinces.

Before receiving the funds, villages must specify their needs and outline planned development programs, as well as detailing plans for supervising the use of the money. Some of the main goals of the village development program are improving nutrition, education, health, local economies and infrastructure in the villages, as well as addressing issues such as gender equality, sustainable forest management and law and justice.

To finance the program, Suebu has shaken up the provincial budget. In the previous budget, 70 percent of funds were allocated for the state apparatus, 20 percent for infrastructure and public spending and the remaining 10 percent for rural development. In the new-look budget, the funds for the state apparatus have been slashed to 27 percent, while 25 percent will go for infrastructure and public spending and 45 percent for rural development.

Papua province also has launched a major infrastructure project, called the integrated transportation network. Under this project, the administration will build seaports, airports and a modern highway system, at a total cost of between Rp 50 trillion and Rp 100 trillion. Funding for the work will come from both the state and provincial budgets, as well as from overseas grants.

Suebu said a modern transportation system would spur economic growth in villages. "Our farmers have to sell their products in the city, but to do this they have to pay a lot for transportation, which cuts their profit. That's a major drawback of a poor transportation system," he told Nethy Dharma Somba of The Jakarta Post in Jayapura.

The governor said the highway construction would begin this year, starting with the 3,000 kilometer Trans-Papua highway, which will connect Papua and West Papua at a cost of Rp 30 trillion.

To save costs, the project will make use of tailings from the PT Freeport mining company, with the end result expected to be of similar quality as concrete roads.

Suebu said with an integrated transportation network, isolated areas would be opened and more investors would come and awaken the "sleeping giant". "This is what we call the new Papua, a prosperous Papua," said the governor.

Among Papua's abundant natural wealth are proven gold and copper reserves of 2.5 billion tons in the PT Freeport mining concession area, 540 million cubic meters of potential commercial timber, nine million hectares of forest conversion areas for large-scale plantations, 2,000 miles of coastline, a sea area of 220,000 square km and 1.3 million tons of potential fishery products per year.

Islamists illegially entered Freeport security area

Three Indonesians were arrested for suspected terror activities after entering a secure site inside the US-based Freeport-McMoRan's mining complex in Papua province, a police spokesman and sources told AFP. The three were arrested Thursday after they entered a "protected area" inside a gold mine complex run by a Freeport subsidiary without having proper security clearance, said national deputy police spokesman Bambang Kuncoko. Police were whether the three were planning to launch attacks on the huge complex, Kuncoko said.

A senior officer with Indonesia's anti-terror unit Detachment 88 said two of the three were Freeport employees, including one in charge of handling explosives. The third is an Islamic teacher, the officer said. The teacher had at least once entered the complex using a visitor's ID pass made by one of the other two, the officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said anti-terror detectives also seized several documents including bomb-making instructions, a map of Freeport mining area and videos of anti-Western propaganda.

Freeport's office in the capital Jakarta and its Papua gold mine are among scores of Western interests in Indonesia which receive heavy protection and constant monitoring by police. Indonesia has suffered a spate of bloody attacks orchestrated by the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group this decade.

Papuan court jails two more over mine protest

A court in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua ailed two people for five and six years each for taking part in violent protests against a US-run mine, AFP reported. Hundreds of protesters clashed with security officers in March near Papua's capital Jayapura over the mine run by Freeport-McMoran, leaving six people dead. The Jayapura district court found Selpius Bobi, 22, guilty of "inciting others to commit violence" during the melee and sentenced him to five years, said lawyer Iwan Niode. He said the court also sentenced 20-year-old Elias Tamaka to six years for "resisting against authorities by using force" during the clash.

"We are going to file an appeal this Friday for the pair and for Nelson Rumbiak and the other 10 defendants," Niode told AFP. Niode refused to attend the trial, charging that it was a "theatrical act" and that his clients were innocent. The same court on Monday sentenced Rumbiak to six years while 10 of his co-defendants were jailed for five years. Sixteen Papuans, mostly students, have been standing trial accused of stoking the violence in Papua's Abepura, which left five security personnel and one civilian dead.

Catholic group accuses Jayapura police of torture

A Catholic human rights group has accused regional police of torturing 23 Papuans arrested after violent protests in March. The Peace and Justice Secretariat of the Catholic diocese in Papua's provincial capital, Jayapura, alleged cases of physical and mental abuse, and intimidation of prisoners. The claims coincided with the Batam summit between Prime Minister John Howard and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, called over Australia's policy towards Papua asylum seekers.

The 23 were arrested after the 16 and 17 March student demonstrations outside Jayapura's Cendrawasih University which demanded the closure of the Freeport copper mine. Four policemen, an air force soldier and a civilian were killed in the riots, prompting hundreds of students to flee their homes and dormitories in fear of reprisals by security forces.

The Peace and Justice Secretariat told the Sydney Morning Herald its staff and representatives from other church groups interviewed three of the 23 detainees at the regional police cells in Jayapura. The prisoners said wounds on their faces were sustained during days of police interrogation and they were being kept in crowded cells, the report noted. One prisoner said they had been tortured for information during the first few weeks and a senior police officer had threatened to shoot him and had aimed a gun at his mouth. Prisoners also told interviewers they had not seen their legal counsel appointed by the authorities and so were at a loss when they fronted up in court. Two of them said they were maltreated by police two hours before the court hearing started, in a bid to get them to confess they were involved in the deaths of the police officers and air force soldier. "They were kicked with army boots, struck on the head and body with rifle butts and rubber truncheons," the report said.