Indonesia Human Rights Committee,
Box 68-419,
Auckland

17 July, 2009
Media Release

IHRC calls on the Super Fund and the Minister of Finance to cease investing in the Freeport McMoran in the light of recent killings.

IHRC has renewed its call for the Super Fund to divest from Freeport McMoran Ltd in view of the recent violence near the company’s giant West Papua mining operation.

Three men died tragically over the last week, including a young Australian expatriate, Drew Grant.

The NZ Super Fund holds a controversial investment in Freeport McMoran, which belies the Fund’s commitment to investing ethically.

The presence of the Freeport McMoran gold and copper mine has brought nothing but misery to the local tribal people. IHRC believes that the human and environmental cost of the mine over the past 40 years is incalculable.

Analysts suggest that the violence may result from rivalry between paramilitary police units and soldiers competing for control of illegal multimillion-dollar protection businesses.

Whoever is found to be responsible for the latest violence, local people are the innocent pawns in a high-stakes game from which they draw no benefit.

New Zealand divestment would send a strong signal of our concern for the environment and the people of West Papua.

Letter follows:

Adrian Orr,
Chief Executive,
New Zealand Superannuation Fund,

David May,
Chair,
Board of Guardians,
New Zealand Superannuation Fund,
PO Box 106-607
Auckland.

Hon Bill English,
Minister of Finance,
Parliament Buildings,
Wellington

16 July, 2009

Dear Adrian Orr, David May and Bill English,

We are writing to you as you are key personnel responsible for the Superannuation Fund to bring to your attention recent tragic events in the area of the Freeport McMoran mine.

It is likely to be some time before we know who is responsible for the tragic death of Australian Drew Grant near the giant Freeport McMoran mine in West Papua on July 11.

As you may know Drew’s death was followed by the deaths of a security guard Markus Rante Alo and a policeman Second Brigadier Marson.

Some have suggested that elite military forces could be responsible for the attack on Drew Grant because the attackers appeared to be well trained and were using bullets standard to the security forces.

Dr George Aditjondro, an Indonesian sociologist and scholar suggested that elements of the Indonesian military may have been behind the attack which could well have been designed to put pressure on the mining company to pay higher ‘protection fees’.

No less a person than the Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono has commented that the attacks may be the responsibility of ‘rouge elements’ in the military.

It is unfortunate that the controversy about the activities of the Freeport gold and copper mine only makes the headlines when the victims are from the West.

Tragic deaths are not uncommon in the mine area including deaths related to inter-communal conflict and clashed with the police as Papuans seek to pan for left-over gold. Over the forty years of the mine’s operation human rights groups have documented countless abuses to the local people including torture, rape and extrajudicial killings.

You are already very familiar with our concerns about the mine’s record for environmental destruction – the local river system has had over a billion tons of tailings sludge poured into it.

Tribal peoples have been alienated from the forests and fisheries that once sustained them. It is not surprising that the mine is frequently a focus for Papuan protest actions.

In recent year the practice of the Freeport McMoran management making payments to the Indonesian military for security has become very controversial.

Although local spokespeople deny that this practice still continues , a February AFP media report quoted Freeport spokesman Bill Collier to the effect that US$1.6 million was made in direct payments as part of eight million dollars Freeport paid in broader ‘support costs’ for 1,850 police and soldiers protecting the mine. Apparently most of the direct payments are made to the police who may then pass on payments to their military ‘assistants’.

Since the killings we understand that a crack counter-terrorism team has been sent to the area and the military have made contingency plans to send a further battalion to the mine area. For the West Papuan people this increased militarisation is likely to lead to greater tension and increase the potential for future conflict and human rights violations.

We urge the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and the New Zealand Government which is ultimately responsible for the Fund, to follow the example of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, and divest from Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold Inc. The human cost of the mine is already horrendous and will inevitably escalate. Divestment from Freeport McMoran would be a clear signal of New Zealand’s concern about the human death toll that is directly and indirectly related to the mine’s operations.

Yours sincerely,

Maire Leadbeater
For the Indonesia Human Rights Committee

ENDS

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