The Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) and the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) have denounced the Rome Agreement of 30 September 1962 as “illegal” during protest speeches marking the 61st anniversary last Saturday.

The groups gathered at several places throughout Indonesia to hold peaceful protests and speeches.

The protesters held a public discussion and protest in Yogyakarta, Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, Ternate, East Java and North Maluku.

• READ MORE: Release of Victor Yeimo from Indonesian prison rekindles West Papuan fight against racism
• Other West Papua reports

Some protesters were met by hardliner groups of Indonesians who claimed they were supported and protected by the Indonesian police.

The Facebook page of AMP reports that peaceful demonstrations were also scheduled for September 30 in Kupan city but were obstructed by Garuda reactionaries, known as ORMAS (Civic Organisation Group) and police officers.

Some conversations were extremely racist, indicating that both the police and state are still maintaining a policy of racism.

Protests such as these are not unusual. Papuan students and their Indonesian supporters do this annually in order to draw attention to Indonesia’s illegal occupation of West Papua, which violates international law and the UN Charters on self-determination and decolonisation.

This time, the protest was over the Rome Agreement.

In 2021, an attempt to stage a protest in front of the US Embassy in central Jakarta was also made, but 17 AMP Papuan students were arrested.

What the protests are against
These protests across Indonesia may be dismissed by mainstream media as insignificant. But for Papuans, they are actually most significant.

The theme is protesting against what Papuans see as the “genesis” of a betrayal with lies, deceit, and manipulation by powerful international actors that sealed Papua’s fate with Indonesia.

This set a stage of gross human rights violations and exploitation of West Papua’s natural resources, which has been going on since these agreements were signed.

They were treaties, agreements, discussions, and decisions concerning West Papua’s future made by state and multinational actors without Papuan input — ultimately leading to West Papua’s “destruction”.

According to the AMP, the agreement between the Netherlands, Indonesia, the United Nations (UN) and the United States was manipulated to gain control over Papua, reports Suara Kalbar.

The AMP Papuan students and their Indonesian solidarity groups stated that the September 1962 Rome Agreement, followed by the signing of the New York Agreement on August 15, 1962, was reached without the involvement of any representatives of the Papuan people.

The protesters’ highlighted these flaws of the Rome Agreement that:

1. The Act of Free Choice to be delayed or cancelled;
2. “Musyawarah” (a form of Indonesian consensus building) be used rather than one-person-one-vote;
3. The UN report to the UNGA be accepted without debate;
4. Indonesia would rule West Papua for 25 years after 1963;
5. The US could exploit natural resources in partnership with Indonesian state companies; and
6. The US would underwrite an Asian Development Bank grant for US$30 million and guarantee World Bank funds for a transmigration programme beginning in 1977.

The agreement signed by Indonesia, the Netherlands and the United States was a very controversial with 29 articles stipulating the New York agreement, which regulates 3 things, where articles 14-21 regulate self-determination based on the international practice of one person one vote; and articles 12 and 13 governing the transfer of the administration from the United Nations Temporary Executive (UNTEA) to Indonesia.

Thus, this agreement allowed Indonesia’s claim to the land of Papua, which had been carried out after the transfer of control of West Papua from Dutch to Indonesia through UNTEA on 1 May 1963.

West Papua ‘conditioned’
The student protesters argued that prior to 1963 Indonesia had already conditioned West Papua by conducting military operations and suppressing the pro-independence movement, reports Koran Kejora.

Ironically, the protesters say, even before the process of self-determination was carried out on 7 April 1967, Freeport, the state-owned “mining company of American imperialism”, had signed its first contract with Indonesia.

This meant that West Papua had already been claimed by Indonesia through Freeport’s first contract two years before the Act of Free Choice was conducted, reports Koran Kehora.

The Act of Free Choice itself “was a sham”, only 1025 out of 809,337 Papuans with the right to vote had been quarantined or voted, and only 175 of them voiced their opinion, protesters said.

Despite its undemocratic nature, terror, intimidation, manipulation, and gross human rights violations, with the implementation of the Act of Free Choice, Indonesia legitimised its illegal claim to West Papua.

Igin Kogoya, a coordinator for AMP and Indonesian supporters in Malang, said in a media release that Indonesia did not carry out the agreement in accordance with the New York Agreement, reports Jubi.

Instead, Indonesia uses a variety of military operations to condition the region and suppress the independence movement of West Papuans.

“Therefore, before the self-determination process was carried out in 1969, Freeport, the imperialist state-owned mining company of the United States, signed its first contract of work with the Indonesian government illegally on 7 April 1967.”

Early Freeport mine deal
Naldo Wasiage of AMP Lombok and Benjos of FRI-WP Lombok claimed colonial Indonesia had made claims to the West Papua region with Freeport’s first contract two years before the Act of Free Choice was passed.

Today, Indonesia’s reform, terror, intimidation, and incarceration, as well as the shootings and murders of Papuans, still occurring.

The human rights of the Papuan people are insignificant and hold no value for Indonesia.

The Military Operation Area was implemented throughout West Papua before and after the illegal Act of Free Choice. This clearly demonstrates that Indonesia’s desire to colonise West Papua until the present.

When asked about the Rome Agreement, Andrew Johnson, an Australian who has been researching international documents and treaties related to West Papua’s “betrayal”, said:

In order to invest billions of dollars in looting West Papua, Freeport would need assurances that Indonesia would be able to deliver access to the region. A Rome Agreement-type document would provide this assurance.

Victor Yeimo: Unveiling the atrocities
After being released from the Indonesian legal system and prison on 23 September 2023, Victor Yeimo addressed thousands of Papuans in Waena Jayapura by saying:

The Papuan people have long suffered under a dehumanising paradigm, which denies our inalienable rights to be human in our own land.

Yeimo said that the Papuan people in West Papua were systematically excluded from any decision-making processes that shaped their own future.

Jakarta’s oppressive control led to arbitrary policies and laws imposed on West Papuans, disregarding their voices and aspirations. This exclusion highlighted the colonisers’ desire to maintain control and dominance, he said.

The ratification of Special Autonomy, Volume II, serves as an example of Jakarta’s deception. The Papuan People’s Council (MRP), entrusted with representing the special autonomy law, was sidelined, rendering their role meaningless.

Jakarta’s military intervention further emphasised the denial of Papuan rights.

The expansion of five new autonomous provinces in West Papua deepens the marginalisation of indigenous Papuans. This move reinforces the grip of Indonesian colonialism, eroding the cultural identity of the Papuan people.

Jakarta’s tactics, supported by state intelligence and collaboration with local elites, legitimised its oppressive control, Yeimo said.

The state intelligence agency (BIN) in Jakarta manipulated conflict between Papuan groups and tribes to perpetuate hostility and division. By sowing seeds of discord, the colonisers sought to weaken the collective strength of the Papuan people and divert their attention away from their own oppressive actions.

Under Indonesian colonial rule, property, wealth and position held little significance for the Papuan people, Yeimo said.

Relying on hollow promises and pseudo-offers from the oppressors would never lead to justice, welfare, or peace. It was time to reject the deceptive allure of colonialism and focus on reclaiming autonomy and dignity, Yeimo told his people.

Embracing nationalistic ideals was crucial in the Papuan struggle for liberation. Indigenous Papuans must question their own participation in Indonesian colonialism.

Working for the colonisers as bureaucratic elites or bourgeois elites does not uphold their humanity or dignity. It is time to reclaim their autonomy and fight for their freedom.

Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

• Other Yamin Kogoya articles

The Free Papua Organisation (Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM) has sent an open letter to the United Nations leadership demanding that “decolonisation” of the former Dutch colony of West New Guinea, the Indonesian-administered region known across the Pacific as West Papua, be initiated under the direction of the UN Trusteeship Council.

The letter accuses the UN of being a “criminal accessory to the plundering of the ancestral lands” of the Papuans, a Melanesian people with affinity and close ties to many Pacific nations.

According to the OPM leader, chairman-commander Jeffrey Bomanak, West Papuans had been living with the expectation for six decades that the UN would “fulfill the obligations regarding the legal decolonisation of West Papua”.

• READ MORE: Author condemns Canberra ‘collusion’ with Jakarta on West Papua atrocities
• OPM’s open letter to the UN
• Other West Papua reports

Alternatively, wrote Bomanak, there had been an expectation that there would be an explanation “to the International Commission of Jurists if there are any legal reasons why these obligations to West Papua cannot be fulfilled”.

The open letter was addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi and Trusteeship Council President Nathalie Estival-Broadhurst.

Bomanak also accused the UN of “gifting” West Papua and Indonesia and the US mining conglomerate Freepost-McMoRan at Grasberg in 1967.

‘Guilty’ over annexation
“The United Nations is guilty of annexing West New Guinea on Sept 21, 1962, as a trust territory which had been concealed by the UN Secretariat from the Trusteeship Council.”

Indonesia has consistently rejected West Papuan demands for self-determination and independence, claiming that its right to sovereignty over the region stems from the so-called Act of Free Choice in 1969.

But many West Papuans groups and critics across the Pacific and internationally reject the legitimacy of this controversial vote when 1025 elders selected by the Indonesian military were coerced into voting “unanimously” in favour of Indonesian rule.

A sporadic armed struggle by the armed wing of OPM and peaceful lobbying for self-determination and independence by other groups, such as the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), have continued since then with persistent allegations of human rights violations with the conflict escalating in recent months.

In 2017, the UN’s Decolonisation Committee refused to accept a petition signed by 1.8 million West Papuans calling for independence, saying West Papua’s cause was outside the committee’s mandate.

“The UN is a criminal accessory to the plundering of our ancestral lands and to the armament exports from member nations to our murderers and assassins — the Indonesian government,” claimed Bomanak in his letter.

“West Papua is not a simple humanitarian dilemma. The real dilemma is the perpetual denial of West Papua’s right to freedom and sovereignty.”

Bomanak alleges that the six-decade struggle for independence has cost more than 500,000 lives.

West Papua case ‘unique’
In a supporting media release by Australian author and human rights advocate Jim Aubrey, he said that the open letter should be read “by anyone who supports international laws and governance and justice that are applied fairly to all people”.

“West Papua’s case for the UN to honour the process of decolonisation is a unique one,” he said.

“Former Secretary General U Thant concealed West Papua’s rights as a UN trust territory for political reasons that benefited the Republic of Indonesia and the American mining company Freeport-McMoRan.

“West Papua was invaded and recolonised by Indonesia. The mining giant Freeport-McMoRan signed their contract to build the Mt Grasberg mine with the mass murderer Suharto in 1967.

“The vote of self-determination in 1969 was, for Suharto and his commercial allies, already a foregone conclusion in 1967.”

Aubrey said that West Papuans were still being “jailed, tortured, raped, assassinated [and] bombed in one of the longest ongoing acts of genocide since the end of the Second World War”.

Western countries accused
He accused Australia, European Union, UK, USA as well as the UN of being “accessories to Indonesia’s illegal invasion and landgrab”.

About Australia’s alleged role, Aubrey said he had called for a Royal Commission to investigate but had not received a reply from Governor-General David Hurley or from Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

PRESS RELEASE

OFFICIAL OPM Press Release 14 September 2023
OPM LEADER ACCUSES UN OF GIFTING WEST PAPUA TO INDONESIA & US MINER FREEPORT-MCMORAN – DEMANDS DECOLONIZATION

Jeffrey P Bomanak accuses United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, General Assembly President Csaba… pic.twitter.com/gggZl3wLyc

— Lewis Prai : West Papuan Diplomat (@PapuaWeb) September 14, 2023

Four Indonesian ministers gathered to witness the signing of an agreement between state-owned mining holding group PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) and Freeport-McMoran (FCX) to take over Papua’s PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) in complex deals worth $3.85 billion.

Under the agreement, Indonesia will take control of 51 percent of Freeport Indonesia’s equity, and hold a majority stake in the company that operates the world’s largest gold mine, Grasberg in Papua.

The signing was the culmination of years of negotiations, preceding the current administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, and a tug-of-war between Indonesia and the American company.

The presence of four ministers at the signing was an indication of the economic and political importance of the deal to the Jokowi administration. But it is not yet a done deal, as officials have liked to claim.

The agreement requires the two parties to conduct further negotiations to finalise the details of the divestment. The government expects to finish ironing out the details sometime in August.

Freeport’s footprint in Indonesia
Here is your guide to understanding the seemingly never-ending negotiations, and why it matters for Indonesia to cement the deal as soon as possible:

• Freeport-McMoran has operated in Indonesia since it signed its first contract in 1967 in a deal that was good for 30 years. In 1997, it received an extension for its operation until 2021. The two contracts in essence covered mining for copper, with gold and silver treated as associated resources found alongside copper ores.
• Both contracts were signed during the regime of president Suharto. The first contract in 1967 was widely hailed as a landmark moment, symbolising the ushering in of Indonesia’s open-door policy to foreign investment under the pro-Western General Suharto, who had just taken over power from the socialist-leaning Sukarno a year earlier.
• Developing the mines deep in the mountainous jungles of Papua required huge initial investment to build core infrastructure, including roads, housing and power plants, as well as preparing the pool of workers. In return for this investment, Freeport received generous tax breaks.

Freeport’s first phase of operations exploited the Ertsberg Mountain in Mimika regency. Once the mountain was flattened, Freeport turned to mining the adjacent Mt Grasberg, which turned out to contain even larger reserves. Freeport is looking to mine the large gold reserves underground, assuming the latest agreement holds.

Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that the reserves at the world’s biggest gold deposit and second-largest copper mine are worth about $14 billion.

Freeport-MacMoran’s operations in Indonesia accounted for 47 percent of its operating income in 2017, according to Bloomberg.

Freeport’s huge profits have been a source of contention with long-standing criticism that the tax and royalty revenues paid to the Indonesian government represent only a pittance of its true income.

Indonesia’s 9.36 percent stake in PTFI, as stipulated in the 1991 contract of work (CoW), also does not amount to much, particularly as Freeport has at times withheld paying dividends.

For example, PTFI paid Rp 1.4 trillion in dividends in 2017 after three years of failing to make any payments, according to the Finance Ministry.

Freeport has also attracted controversy for the environmental and social impacts of its operations in the heart of Papua.

Last year, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) came out with a damning report claiming that Freeport had caused $13 billion in environmental damages.

Wind of change for Freeport
In 2009, Indonesia passed the Coal and Mineral Mining Law, or Law No. 4/2009. The law requires all foreign mining companies to divest 51 percent of their shares to the Indonesian government, state-owned or regional-owned enterprises or private Indonesian companies within 10 years of the start of operation.

Freeport has managed to work its way around the regulation by indicating that it is operating under a CoW, which is good until 2021.

In January 2017, the government issued a new regulation requiring all mining contracting companies to switch to special mining permits (IUPK) in order to export products in the form of concentrates, which is one step above ore but still not refined.

Freeport refused to fully comply, arguing that the IUPK was not a nailed-down scheme because the stipulations, including the taxation scheme, could change according to changes in government regulations.

In February 2017, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry issued PTFI an IUPK saying the company had finally agreed to the terms, paving the way for the divestment deal signed on Thursday.

Series of agreements
In August 2017, following pressure from the government to divest its shares in PTFI, Freeport-McMoran’s top management agreed to increase Indonesia’s share in PTFI to 51 percent, as well as to develop a smelter and increase Indonesia’s revenue from PTFI’s tax and royalty payments.

The Indonesian government chose state mining holding company Inalum to become the majority shareholder in PTFI.

However, questions remain regarding the price tag and how Inalum will pay for its stake in Freeport. Inalum president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Thursday that the company would have to pay $3.85 billion in August and that it had already secured loans from 11 banks.

What are the benefits of majority ownership in Freeport?

Bisman Bakhtiar, the executive director of the Center for Energy and Mining Law (Pushep), said it was time for Indonesia to take control over the huge gold reserves in Papua, as 50 years had passed since PTFI began operations.

“Too much of our resources have been exploited. Surely after 50 years, we have the capability to operate it ourselves,” Bisman said.

Indonesia will reap the largest share of the profits and dividends, which in the past had almost entirely gone to PTFI. The government will also continue to enjoy taxes, royalties as well as a cut of the revenue.

“There are many ways to maximise the benefits from PTFI for the people, and divestment is one of them,” he said.

However, Bisman urged the government to ensure that Indonesia benefited from the next phase of negotiations to finalise the divestment deal.

“Even though we will finally become the majority owner in August, we need to look at the tax, royalty and revenue sharing arrangements. Are they better or not?”

Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman is a journalist with The Jakarta Post.

The Indonesian government’s decision to allow one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines to operate in Papua province until 2041 has prompted local indigenous leaders to remind officials that their people never gave up land ownership and want a role in negotiations.

On Tuesday, the US-based firm Freeport McMoran announced it was giving up a majority of its ownership in Papua’s Grasberg mining complex in exchange for being allowed to operate there for up to 24 more years.

“We indigenous Papuans, especially from the Amungme and Kamoro tribe communities, have never released our ancestral lands to any party, neither to the government of Indonesia nor Freeport,” John Gobay, a chairman of the Customary Council in Paniai, a district in Papua province, said.

Two weeks ago, he met with Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in Jakarta, where Gobay expressed concerns about issues involving Freeport’s operations at the Grasberg complex.

He said neither the Amungme nor Komoro were seeking a share of the mine, but they should be valued as the owners of the mountain where Freeport has been operating for decades.

“We own the mountain and the land and the state has recognised it under the state 1945 Constitution and Law No. 21 of 2001 on Papua Special Autonomy,” Gobay said.

Freeport-McMoran agreed to divest 41.64 percent of its Indonesian subsidiary, PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), at a fair market price to allow 51 percent ownership by Indonesian interests.

Freeport’s share of the company is 90.64 percent while the Indonesian government holds the other 9.36 percent.

‘Positive for stakeholders’
“Reaching this understanding on the structure of the mutual agreement is significant and positive for all stakeholders. Important work remains on documenting this agreement and we are committed to completing the documentation as soon as possible during 2017,” Freeport chief executive Richard C. Adkerson said in a news release.

As part of the agreement, Freeport agreed to construct a smelter in Indonesia by 2022, thereby lifting a government threat to ban the company from exporting unrefined copper.

The smelter is estimated to cost US$2 billion and is a major concession for his company, Adkerson told the Wall Street Journal.

The government is not likely to have the financing to buy all of Freeport’s share being put on the market, so the divestment could be spread across many potential buyers, analysts told the Journal.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignatius Jonan represented the Indonesian government and Adkerson represented Freeport at a news conference in Jakarta on Tuesday where both sides announced the agreement.

Ignatius said Indonesia had agreed to extend Freeport’s licence, which ends in 2021, by 10 years to 2031, and another 10 years to 2041 if the company met the contract’s requirements, including the smelter.

“The negotiation between the government and Freeport began in early 2017. But in the last three to four (days), the talks got intense and the two sides found an agreement,” Ignatius said.

Adkerson said Freeport would honour the agreement.

“We appreciate the leadership of President Joko Widodo and we have been listening carefully to what the government wants and its objectives,” he told the news conference.

Papuans demand role
But because Papuans own the land in and around the mining complex, they should have a role in the upcoming negotiations involving the purchase of company holdings, said Ruben Magay, a member of the Papuan Regional Legislative Council (DPRP).

“This is the time for the government to involve land owners in determining Freeport’s investments,” he said.

“There are three parties, the central government/local government, investors and indigenous people.”

He said discussions regarding Freeport should be clear on what percentage is for investors, what percentage is for the government and how much is for the indigenous people.

“During Freeport’s first work contract in 1967, until the second work contract in 1991, and this most recent one, the position of indigenous people has been unclear. The discussion has been between the central government and the investor, in this case, America,” Magay said.

Gobay expressed hope that Jokowi would hold a special negotiation session attended by the government, Freeport and the representatives of Amungme and Komoro tribes.

“If not, we will report it to the United Nations through the indigenous representatives and we will contest Freeport and the central government for not complying with its own regulation,” Gobay said.

Victor Mambor is a leading Papuan journalist and editor of Tabloid Jubi.

• More West Papuan stories

Gold and copper mining firm PT Freeport has reportedly laid off 840 employees for going on strike in Timika in the Indonesian-ruled province of Papua from May Day onwards.

Septinus Soumilena, Head of the Immigration, Transmigration and Public Housing Office, confirmed he had received a report from PT Freeport about the dismissal of some 840 employees.

“We have received a letter of notification from the management of PT Freeport stating 840 employees had been laid off. Of course, this is a cause of major concern for all of us,” he said.

The Immigration, Transmigration and Public Housing Office in Mimika tried its best to prevent the layoff by writing to the management of PT Freeport on but to no avail, he revealed.

“It turns out that the letter we have sent was late, because by the time it was sent, about 430 workers had been laid off.

“Today, we sent a letter urging the management of PT Freeport to cancel the layoff. The number of employees discharged has reached 840,” he said.

The Mimika district government will act, as soon as possible, to facilitate a meeting between the management of PT Freeport and leaders of labor unions, he stated.

The blacklisting of Jack Hewson, a freelance journalist working for Al Jazeera, shows the Indonesian government’s paranoia towards foreign journalists.

The government should allow the foreign press to cover Papua. Preventing journalists from reporting the facts there is not a good testament on the claim of press freedom in Indonesia.

Hewson, who is based in Jakarta, planned to report on the Freeport issue from Timika in Papua.

But after leaving for the Philippines last week, he learned that he has been banned from returning to Indonesia for no clear reason.

It transpires that the request for the ban came from the Indonesian Military (TNI). According to the Immigration Directorate General, Hewson is suspected of “dangerous activities, endangering security and public order”.

What did Hewson do that was deemed to have endangered security? Was he not simply covering and writing reports about Indonesia like other journalists?

Was it linked with his plan to cover Freeport? Whatever the problem, blacklisting a foreign journalist without a reason or sufficient evidence is a serious violation of press freedom.

Similar bans
Before the Hewson case, there were similar bans on foreign journalists wanting to report on Papua. French journalist Cyril Payen is still barred from entering Indonesia following his documentary film, The Forgotten War in Papua, which detailed human rights violations in Indonesia’s easternmost province.

Two other French journalists, Thomas Dandois and Louise Marie Valentine Bourrat, were jailed for more than two months for covering Wamena while on tourist visas.

The government’s attitude towards foreign journalists damages the claim to press freedom in Indonesia.

In the 2016 Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders, Indonesia is ranked 130 out of 180 nations, below Cambodia and Timor-Leste.

Officials from the TNI and the Interior Ministry are too suspicious of foreign journalists. They seem not to understand the function and the role of the press, including the foreign media.

Papua has been closed to the outside world for almost a quarter of a century. Few foreign journalists have been able to travel there. Therefore, it is not surprising that many reporters from around the world want to take a look, especially since there are many problems there, from the Free Papua Movement to the Freeport debacle.

‘Open’ to foreign journalists
In 2015, President Joko Widodo said Papua was open to foreign journalists. Clearly, state institutions and ministries should support the president by facilitating journalists’ access to that region. Preventing them from going there is inconsistent with the president’s policy.

The government has no reason to ban foreign reporters because Papua is not a military emergency region. Closing it off from the outside world will only make matters worse.

Rumours and fake reports will spread faster and be more credible if there are no professional journalists who can explain the truth about the province.

There is no need for the government to react angrily when foreign journalists report negatively, as long as their reports are factual. We no longer live in the New Order period, when the mass media was under the full control of the authorities. The government should understand that negative or positive reports on Papua depends on whether the government can bring about prosperity and justice over there.

Read the full story in Tempo English Magazine.

In another protest in the central Javanese city of Yogyakarta on Friday, police moved in on students demanding the closure of the Freeport Indonesia and self-determination for the West Papuan nation near their university and broke up the rally.

Frans Nawipa from the AMP said that over the past 50 years in which Freeport had conducted mining activities on Papuan land there had not been the slightest benefit obtained by the Papuan people.

“What there has been has only been environmental destruction, what share of profits?”  Nawipa said in a speech in front of the PT Freeport Indonesia building in the Kuningan area of South Jakarta.

“All the profits have been taken by Jakarta. West Papua, which is poor, has instead become poorer.”

Over the last 50 years the Papuan people had never been invited to be involved in decision making, said Nawipa.

Since the signing of the first work contract, the Papuan people had known nothing about the agreement.

“From the start when Freeport came to our land, it was illegal, the first work contract was illegal because West Papua had yet to officially become part of Indonesia.”

The gold and copper company obtained its first mining permit in April 1967.

At the time the company was in the midst of a conflict with the Indonesian government over changes to the obligations and sale of company shares.

Police break up Yogyakarta rally
In Yogyakarta, police broke up a rally by students demanding the closure of the Freeport Indonesia and self-determination for the West Papuan nation at the University of Gajah Mada (UGM) traffic circle on Friday.

The head of the Sleman municipal police operational division, police commander Khundori said that the demonstration was broken up because the protesters, from FRI-West Papua and AMP, had not notified police beforehand.

“We immediately broke up [the rally] because there was no prior notification, [according to] regulations [there should be] a notification three days before a protest action,” he said.

Khundori added that police were already on alert at the UGM traffic circle before the rally was held, which started at around 10am.

“Before [they moved off to the] UGM traffic circle we broke up [the rally] at the point where they were gathering near the UGM entrance gate”, he added.

Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.

• Protesters in Jakarta say Freeport has brought no benefits to the Papuan people
• Police break up Yogya protest

A bishop in Papua has called for government aid for thousands of Papuans made jobless because of a bitter contractual dispute between the government and U.S.-based mining giant PT Freeport McMoran Inc.

The row, which has reduced operations at the world’s second biggest copper mine in Papua’s Mimika district by about 60 percent, stems from Indonesia seeking to change mining industry regulations over ore processing and foreign ownership.

The government wants to cap copper concentrate exports to boost its domestic smelting industry.

Freeport says the regulations breach its current contract with the government, which runs until 2021. The company says the rules would also affect contracts it has with its customers overseas.

However, the dispute has resulted in job losses for contractors and workers.

“The company has laid off more than a thousand workers. It also threatens to reduce ongoing programs offered to the local community, such as scholarships and health-care services. This is a problem,” Bishop John Philip Saklil of Jayapura said.

The prelate recalled that he and some Papuans owning indigenous land rights, known as hak ulayat, met with Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan on February 27 in Jakarta to find a solution to the problem.

People victimised
“Such a lay-off has victimised many people who depend solely on the company. Many other Papuans, benefit from the programmes,” he said.

According to the local Manpower, Transmigration and Public Housing Agency nearly 1100 workers were laid off as a result of the dispute.

“They dreamed of a good future but then were laid off. Many still have debts to pay. It is not easy for them. Now everyone is worried about their future,” Bishop Saklil said.

A local tribal leader said laid off indigenous people could revert to old traditional activities like hunting to get by, but mining activities have caused havoc with the local ecosystem.

“Due to polluted waters, their feet and hands start to hurt when they go into rivers. Also, animals living in or near rivers have died. So how can we hunt to live?” Amungme tribal leader Yanes Natkimu said.

• Papuan students call on Indonesia to close Freeport mine
• Freeport’s arbitration threat simply ploy to block mining reform

Both groups held the protests on Friday under tight police security, as Papua protests over Freeport took place at several other places across Indonesia.

Scores of demonstrators from the AMP and the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-West Papua) unfurled banners and conveyed a number of demands, including the closure of the PT Freeport gold and copper mine in Papua.

They also brought banners with demands such as, “A joint action to support the Papua problem at the United Nations Human Rights Council” and “Close and Expel Freeport”. Protesters took turns in giving speeches.

The spokesperson for the AMP and FRI-West Papua, Wilson, said that the action represented Papuan society’s anxiety saying there are so many violations at PT Freeport that it was creating ever more misery in the land of Papua.

“The natural resources belong to the Papuan people, but up until now they have not been enjoyed by the Papuan people”, said Wilson.

The action also demanded the right for and self-determination for the nation of West Papua. The groups also demanded a resolution to human rights violations in Papua and the withdrawal of the Indonesian military from the land of Papua.

Counter action
Meanwhile, five people calling themselves the Malang City Darul Hikmah Kebonsari Foundation Islamic Boarding School Religious Pupils said they were there to counter the action which they believe threatened the disintegration of Indonesia.

“Our action is intended to counter them”, said Widoku Rahman, one of the religious pupils taking part in the rally.

The religious pupils claimed that would continue to monitor actions by the AMP who they believe is promoting separatism because of their demands for independence. The group supervised the action from the beginning until the end.

“Please if you want more information contact the head of our boarding school”, said Hadi Widiyanto, one of the other religious pupils.

During the action the five religious pupils unfurled red-and-white Indonesian flags on their chests. They wore long white shirts, white sarongs, white skull caps and sandals.

Although one of the participants brought a megaphone, it was not used for a speech.

• AWPA calls on Turnbull to raise West Papua human rights violations with Jakarta

KBR audio report on the Jakarta protest in Bahasa.

In Ade Irmansyah, Jakarta, KBR reported that action coordinator Samsi Mahmud said taking the issue to the United Nations was the only way to resolve the numerous problems in Papua, particularly human rights violations.

Samsi also urged the government of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to give the Papuan people the right to self-determination.

“We also want to convey to the people of Indonesia, to the Indonesian government, the wishes of the Papuan people, namely that self-determination is the democratic solution for the future of our people and our nation. And for us, in relation to the problems that exist in Papua, the solution is self-determination for the Papuan people”, he said in a speech in front of the United Nations representative office for Indonesia in Jakarta.

Samsi also called on the government to withdraw all military forces, including the police. from the entire Papuan territory saying that the presence of military forces was causing human rights violations in Papua.

Similar rallies were also held by the FRI West Papua in Ternate (North Maluku) and by the FRI West Papua and the AMP in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta.

Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.

“Yes, they [the administration] will get [the shares]. The percentage of shares will be discussed later,” Luhut said after meeting Mimika Regent Eltinus Omaleng in Jakarta on Tuesday as reported by tempo.co.

Luhut said the central government would also discuss with relevant parties the mechanism for which the shares would be transferred to local administrations.

READ MORE: Indonesia stands firm as Freeport mine threatens to cut production

Meanwhile, after the meeting, Eltinus said Luhut mentioned the figure would be between 10 percent and 20 percent, which Luhut said had been demanded by the regent.

Eltinus said the shares for Papuans would be distributed to the Papua administration, Timika administration and the people holding rights to customary communal land near the copper and gold mining site.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed on January 11 Government Regulation (PP) No. 1/2017, a revision to PP No. 23/2010 on the implementation of the mineral and coal mining business.

Under the regulation, mining companies are required to construct a smelter as a precondition for them to export the concentrates.

The companies, including Freeport, are also required to change contracts of work (CoW) to a special mining licence (IUPK). With the IUPK, foreign companies are also required to divest 51 percent of their shares.

“PT Freeport Indonesia [FI] reserves all its rights […] including the right to commence arbitration to enforce all provisions of the contract,” Freeport-McMoRan’s CEO Richard C. Adkerson claims, referring to a protracted dispute with the Indonesian government.

That threat made on Monday is quite similar to those made by many other multinational companies, which fear decreases in their huge profits following reforms by their host governments.

Until around eight years ago, international arbitration within the investor-state-dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism had become a powerful weapon exploited by multinationals to circumvent national regulations and “bully” governments, notably in developing countries, to postpone or annul any reform or to silence environmental NGOs.

At the time of its launch several decades ago, ISDS was indeed vital to encourage foreign investment into developing countries where legal systems were still weak and where many governments were corrupt. It was a forum designed to resolve conflicts between investors and host governments.

ISDS has therefore been written into bilateral investment and trade agreements or treaties. One of the most popular arbitration tribunals is the Washington-based International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a unit of the World Bank.

The ISDS mechanism allows foreign investors to bypass local courts and seek compensation in international tribunals such as the ICSID, for what they claim to be damages caused by expropriation or policy or contractual changes by host governments.

The problem is that within the ISDS scheme only investors or companies can bring lawsuits. A government may defend itself but it cannot sue a company. The mere threat of an ISDS claim by big MNCs can alarm host governments, especially those with bad international reputations, to act in favor of the investor.

Powerful threats
An 18-month study in 2014 and 2015 by the BuzzFeed News online platform on arbitration cases within the ISDS system in Indonesia, India, Africa, Central America and the United States, involving the inspection of tens of thousands of pages of legal documents, revealed how big corporations have turned the threat of ISDS legal action into a fearsome weapon to enable them to have their demands met by host governments in developing countries.

Under the ISDS scheme there seemed no longer a balance between protection of investors and the right of governments to regulate.

It was as striking for its power as for its secrecy, with its proceedings. Of all the ways in which ISDS is used, the most deeply hidden are the threats, uttered in private meetings or ominous letters that invoke those courts, the BuzzFeed study concluded.

The threats are so powerful they often eliminate the need to actually bring a lawsuit. Just the knowledge that it could happen is enough.

Arbitrators who decide the cases are often drawn from the ranks of the same highly paid corporate lawyers who argue ISDS cases. These arbitrators have broad authority to interpret the rules however they want. And there is no meaningful appeal.

Especially for Indonesia, which still grapples with many mining contracts awarded under the authoritarian Soeharto administration (1967-1998), the mere threat of an ISDS claim could trigger alarm.

Indonesia suffered the pang of an international arbitration in 2000 when the government, groaning under the economic crisis, canceled a geothermal power plant contract with Karaha Bodas, a local subsidiary of two US companies, in West Java.

Balancing rights
But Karaha went to an international arbitration tribunal, which in December 2000, awarded it US$261 million, even though the company had not yet ploughed even half that amount into the project. In other words, Indonesia owed a quarter-billion dollars to a private company for electricity it would never receive, from a power plant that had not been built.

Formerly, the dominant view in ISDS circles was simply “the sanctity of a contract must be honored” as long as it was concluded with a legitimate government, however immoral, incompetent or corrupt the leader who signed the contract.

However the perception within international arbitration tribunals now no longer sees a corporate contract as being absolute but a balance between corporate rights and fairness, and, especially, overall economic benefits. When circumstances change after a contract was signed that make it impractical, or uneconomic or inefficient, to comply with contractual obligations, courts may relieve a party of its commitments.

The prevailing opinion now even tends to excuse parties, especially governments in developing countries, from fulfilling contracts if they were entered under compulsion (duress) or corruption or if one party is not competent and the terms of investment arrangements seem imbalanced.

Even the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has criticised the ISDS regime as already going far beyond its original intention, as the system now suffers from a lack of coherence, consistency and predictability.

No wonder many governments in Asia, including Indonesia, Australia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, have decided to remove ISDS provisions from their investment or trade agreements because of the tendency of its mechanism to favor large foreign investors over national governments. Even within the ICSID there has been an increasing trend not to see corporate contracts as being absolute.

Last December an ICSID tribunal decided in favor of the Indonesian government in its dispute with mining firm Churchill, rejecting the British company?s claim over $1 billion in damages, after what the latter alleged to be the expropriation of its rights over huge coal reserves in East Kalimantan.

Vincent Lingga wrote this commentary for The Jakarta Post.

In a media release, Freeport Indonesia did not specify when Hakim, a retired air chief marshal, would officially step down.

However, it said he would move to an advisory role with the company.

“Serving as Freeport Indonesia president director involves an extraordinary commitment of time. I have decided it is in the best interests of Freeport Indonesia and my family to step down from my duties as president director while continuing to support the company in an advisory role,” Hakim was quoted as saying.

READ MORE: Freeport seeks to dodge piling problems as stalemate shuts production

Hakim’s resignation occurred as the company, a subsidiary of United States-based Freeport-McMoRan, fights against complying with the government’s latest mining policy, which stipulates that miners must convert their current contracts of work (CoWs) into special mining permits (IUPKs) in exchange for permission to continue exporting certain mineral ores and concentrates.

Freeport, which operates the huge Grasberg mine in Papua, has repeatedly said it would not agree to the contract conversion unless the government provided assurance of long-term investment stability, consisting of fiscal and legal certainty, in accordance with its CoW signed in 1991.

Freeport-McMoRan CEO and president Richard C. Adkerson thanked Hakim for his contributions to the company.

“We understand that this was a difficult decision for Pak Chappy to make. We appreciate his service to our company and his support. We look forward to his continued advice and counsel,” he said.

Chappy Hakim, also known as an aviation industry expert and prolific writer, was appointed as Freeport Indonesia’s top executive in November.

The company previously appointed retired military officer Air Vice-Marshall (ret.) Maroef Sjamsoeddin as president-director.

Gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia, the country’s largest taxpayer and oldest foreign investor, is in for another rough ride as it struggles to fight the government’s demand to divest controlling ownership and resolve allegations of legislative contempt.

Reuters reports that all work has stopped at Freeport’s Grasberg mine and its workers are planning a demonstration against the government’s move last month that halted exports of copper concentrate to boost domestic industries, a union said.

A prolonged stoppage at the world’s second-biggest copper mine would support copper prices, near 21-month highs this week, but would also deny the Indonesian government desperately needed revenue from one of its biggest taxpayers.

READ MORE: Freeport says it hasn’t agreed on new contract

Freeport’s headache intensified last week when the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry claimed the company had agreed to convert its contract of work (CoW) to a special mining licence (IUPK), and required it to divest 51 percent of its shares and construct a smelter.

In exchange, the government allowed the company to resume its exports of copper concentrate to prevent massive layoffs in its operations in the backwater regency of Timika in Papua, where Freeport has been operating for more than five decades.

The government has claimed its recent policy to continue the relaxation of raw and partly processed mineral exports, which many analysts and politicians deemed as against the law, has profited Freeport because the company can continue with exports despite its questionable commitment to construct a smelter in Indonesia to process its products.

While Freeport has indicated it will fight against the share divestment while agreeing to other demands set out by the government, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan has not blinked and insists the company has to comply.

“Why are they refusing the divestment rule? The shares will later be bought by the government or the government’s partners. What is exactly the reason behind the company’s reluctance?” Jonan said.

Freeport, a local unit of politically wired US mining giant Freeport McMoRan Inc. (FCX), said it would not agree to the contract conversion unless the government provided a long-term investment stability assurance, consisting of fiscal and legal certainties, in accordance to its CoW signed in 1991.

“Freeport Indonesia will keep working with the government to find the best possible solution for both sides. However, no agreement has yet to be made as of today,” Freeport Indonesia spokesperson Riza Pratama said.

Under the CoW, Freeport is required to sell 51 percent of its stake to Indonesian entities by 2011, or 45 percent if it has sold a minimum of 20 percent in the local stock market.

However, a string of regulations were issued along the way that eventually allowed Freeport to dodge the requirement to this date, where very few officials have made a fuss. FCX owns 90.64 percent of the company, while merely 9.36 percent is owned by the Indonesian government.

Full Freeport report

The Indonesian government has approved the conversion of the contracts of gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia and copper producer PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara, allowing them to continue exports of their partly processed minerals.

As required by a revised government regulation that has partly lifted the ban on the export of raw and partly processed minerals, the two companies have converted their contracts of work (CoW) into special mining licences (IUPK).

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry stated that Amman Mineral and Freeport Indonesia had submitted proposals to convert their CoW into IUPK on January 25 and 26, respectively.

READ MORE: Indonesia stands firm as Freeport mine threatens to cut production

Amman Mineral has recently been taken over by local energy firm PT Medco Energi Internasional, owned by politically wired tycoon Arifin Panigoro, from the United States-based miner Newmont Mining Corp., while Freeport Indonesia is a subsidiary of another American giant mining company Freeport-McMoRan Inc.

“Today, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has approved the conversion of Freeport and Amman’s CoW into IUPK,” the ministry’s mineral and coal director general, Bambang Gatot Ariyono, said on Friday.

“Furthermore, we expect those companies to immediately submit proposals for export permit extensions so that we can process them right away.”

Bambang also said the proposals needed to be submitted along with written integrity pacts consisting of commitments and detailed plans to build a smelter, the progress of which will be monitored every six months.
Last month, the government relaxed the ban on mineral exports in returns for miners’ commitment to convert their CoW into IUPK, divest 51 percent of their shares and build a domestic smelter.

“The two companies must also comply with the requirement to sell their shares,” said Bambang, declining to elaborate on the subject of divestment.

The requirements are stipulated in two ministerial decrees as derivatives of the fourth revision of Government Regulation No. 23/2010 on the management of mineral and coal businesses, which allows miners to continue exporting copper concentrates, certain amounts of low-grade nickel and washed bauxite.

Politicians and analysts have argued that the issuance of the regulation and the decrees contravene the 2009 Mining Law, which originally imposed a total ban on mineral ore exports in 2014 and mandated all miners to build smelters domestically to strengthen the processing industry.

However, up to now, Freeport Indonesia and Amman Mineral have shown no significant progress in their smelter developments.

Now that the companies have obtained their IUPK both of their CoW have automatically been annulled and they are obliged to comply with fiscal policies stipulated in the prevailing law in return for their export permit extensions.

The Finance Ministry’s fiscal policy head, Suahasil Nazara, said the government had finalized the revision of a 2014 finance ministerial decree on raw mineral export duties, with the new rates to be based on the smelter-construction progress.

Export duty revision
Under the revision, if smelter progress is between 0 and 30 percent, the export duty will be 7.5 percent, while if the progress is between 30 and 50 percent the duty will be 5 percent and for 50 to 75 percent progress, the duty will be 2.5 percent.The export duty will be 0 percent only when progress passes 75 percent.

The export duties for both lowgrade nickel and washed bauxite will be 10 percent. However, Suahasil did not detail whether the rate was linked to the progress in smelter construction.

“A miner needs to submit a proposal to get the recommendation from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for its export permit. Within such a recommendation, the ministry will state the progress of the smelter development, which will be our basis for setting the export duty for the miner,” Suahasil said, while adding that the duty would last in accordance to the export permit period.

Data from the Finance Ministry show that Freeport Indonesia and Amman Mineral paid Rp 1.23 trillion (US$92.1 million) and Rp 1.25 trillion, respectively, in export duty alone to the government throughout 2016.

Freeport Indonesia said recently it had begun preparing to reduce production, which could be followed by job cuts, in a move that indirectly pushed the government to grant the company the export permit.

• Freeport mining boss denies assaulting lawmaker

Freeport Indonesia director Chappy Hakim has denied assaulting a lawmaker after a hearing with the House of Representatives’ Commission VII in Jakarta.

According to reports, the former Air Force chief-of-staff had assaulted Commission VII member Mukhtar Tompo after a hearing with several representatives of mining companies, including Freeport, which operates the giant Grasberg copper and gold mine in Papua, to discuss the government’s mining policies.

“There was no beating, unlike what has been reported in the media. Mukhtar also said I never assaulted him,” Chappy said in a written statement.

While ministers are rushing to revise the regulations so miners that have committed to build smelters can continue to export ore concentrates, an intermediate product used to make copper, there is no guarantee that the deadline will be met.

The rules as they stand now only permit shipments of refined metal after January 11, Bloomberg reported.

Richard Adkerson, chief executive officer of Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the owner of the massive Grasberg mine in Papua province, said he was confident the issue would be resolved.

He told a conference in the US last week that without a resolution the company would have to cut back operations and potentially curb development of the underground mine where it was spending US$1 billion a year.

CRU Group, a consultancy, says the regulations will be changed.

“CRU’s view is that the rules will be revised and Freeport McMoRan will be able to continue to export Grasberg concentrates,” said Christine Meilton, principal consultant, copper supply and raw materials.

Disruption forecast
“Our base case forecast assumes that any disruption does not continue long enough to result in a cutback in production.”

Grasberg is the world’s largest mine in terms of copper capacity after Escondida in Chile, according to the International Copper Study Group.

Freeport says the deposit has the world’s biggest reserves of gold.

Any disruption could support prices of copper, which is the best performer among its peers this quarter, as banks from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Citigroup Inc. take a bullish view on the metal next year.

Indonesia is seeking to build a processing industry and prevent its mineral wealth from disappearing overseas.

While the rules allowed time for producers to build smelters, the government said that after three years shipments of semi-processed ores would no longer be permitted.

READ MORE: The 100bn gold mine and the West Papuans who are counting the cost

In 1936, Dutch geologist Jean Jacques Dozy climbed the world’s highest island peak: the forbidding Mount Carstensz, a snow-covered silver crag on what was then known as Dutch New Guinea. During the 4800m ascent, Dozy noticed an unusual rock outcrop veined with green streaks. Samples he brought back confirmed exceptionally rich gold and copper deposits.

Today, these remote, sharp-edged mountains are part of West Papua, Indonesia, and home to the Grasberg mine, one of the biggest gold mines – and third largest copper mine – in the world.

Majority-owned by the American mining firm Freeport McMoRan, Grasberg is now Indonesia’s biggest taxpayer, with reserves worth an estimated $100bn (£80bn).

But a recent fact-finding mission (by the Brisbane Archdiocese’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission) described a “slow-motion genocide” (pdf) taking place in West Papua, warning that its indigenous population is at risk of becoming “an anthropological museum exhibit of a bygone culture”.

Since the Suharto dictatorship annexed the region in a 1969 UN referendum largely seen as a fixed land grab, an estimated 500,000 West Papuans have been killed in their fight for self-rule.

Decades of military and police oppression, kidnapping and torture have created a long-standing culture of fear.

Local and foreign journalists are routinely banned, detained, beaten and forced to face trial on trumped-up charges. Undercover police regularly trail indigenous religious, social and political leaders.

And children still in primary school have been jailed for taking part in demonstrations calling for independence from Indonesia.

“There is no justice in this country,” whispered one indigenous villager on condition of anonymity, looking over his shoulder fearfully. “It is an island without law.”

****

Dozy had not set out to find gold in 1936; his goal was to scale the region’s highest glacial peak. But his discovery sparked the interest of Freeport Sulphur – later to become Freeport Minerals Company and then, through a 1981 merger with the McMoRan Oil and Gas Company, Freeport McMoRan – whose board of directors included the well-connected Godfrey Rockefeller (serving from 1931 until the early 1980s) and Henry Kissinger (1988-1995).

Today, indigenous tribes such as the Kamoro and the Amungme claim their communities have been racked with poverty, disease, oppression and environmental degradation since the mine began operations in 1973.

“We are a coastal people, and we depend on the environment,” says the Kamoro’s chief, Hironimus Urmani, in Tipuka, a lowland village down-river from the Grasberg mine.

“Nature is a blessing from God, and we are known by the three Ss: sago [trees], sampan [canoes] and sungai [rivers]. But life is very difficult now.”

Urmani motions to the river opposite, languishing green and motionless. He claims that tailing sediment from the mine has raised the riverbed, suffocating the fish, oysters and shrimp on which the Kamoro diet and economy are traditionally based. A 2012 report from Earthworks and MiningWatch Canada (pdf) asserts that mine waste from Grasberg has “buried over 166 sq km of formerly productive forest and wetlands, and fish have largely disappeared”.

‘We need to earn money’
Although most Kamoro still try to eke out a living fishing and foraging for food, they struggle to find paid work, says Urmani. “We need to earn money. But now we face major competition from non-Papuan migrants.”

Locals fear that the government’s controversial transmigration programme, which resettles Indonesians from high-density islands such as Java to low-population areas, is wiping out their population completely. Indigenous Melanesian Christians – they comprised 96 percent of the population in 1971 (pdf) – now make up a 48 percent minority, with numbers expected to fall to 29 percent by 2020 if migration rates continue.

Clashes between the indigenous Christians – and migrant Indonesian Muslims – have also resulted in riots, fires and injuries.

“Land has been taken away, directly by Freeport … and indirectly, as the Indonesian settlers have appropriated it,” says Dr Agus Sumule, professor of agricultural socio-economics at the University of Papua.

“The stresses [on indigenous people] are intense,” says Sumule. “They have been very negatively impacted.”

The Indonesian government signed over to Freeport the right to extract mineral wealth from the Grasberg site in West Papua in 1967. A 2002 report (pdf) from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) details that land agreements were not negotiated with the Amungme until 1974, a year after the mine opened, and with the Kamoro in 1997.

The compensation paid for Kamoro and Amungme land has been mainly in the form of communal benefits, such as the building of homes, schools and places of worship. The IIED report notes, “Perceptions of land rights and historic compensation claims are a continuing source of dissatisfaction and conflict in the mining area.”

Recent census data shows Papua’s GDP per capita at $3510, compared to the Indonesian average of $2452. Yet Papua has the highest poverty rate in the country, nearly three times the national average. It also has the highest infant, child and maternal mortality rates in Indonesia, as well as the worst health indicators, and the poorest literacy rates.

Scale of destitution
The scale of destitution is best observed from the highland Amungme village of Banti, just 20 miles down from the Grasberg mine.

Estimates from Earthworks suggest that Freeport dumps as much as 200,000 tonnes of mine waste, known as tailings, directly into the Aikwa delta system every day. The practice has devastated the environment, according to Earthworks and locals, turning thousands of hectares of verdant forest and mangroves into wasteland and rendering turgid the once-crystal waters of the highlands.

The tailings from the Grasberg mine are so rich with ore that Papuans walk for as long as a week to get here. Crowding the length of the river and the delta wasteland, thousands of unlicensed panners shore up small sections to slow the river’s flow and dig into the thick sediment on the side.

Although some of these panners are located within Freeport’s official mining operations, they are not evicted or controlled in any way, they said. Instead, they claim they sell their findings to the police and military who work as security on the mine. (An anonymous Freeport source also confirmed this).

One of the panners, Martine Wandango, 25, bends over her pail of water as she filters out rocks and searches for ore. “You can only survive with money, and you can only find money from gold,” says Martine, who followed her husband to the delta 15 years ago by walking 60 miles over the mountains from their remote highland village.

“I work really hard as I want to give my children better lives, so they can go to school. But it isn’t enough, so she helps me here mining,” says Martine of her daughter, nine, who swings a gold pan in her hands. “On a good day, I can get three grammes, which I sell either to the police or [to buyers] in Timika.”

A tiny village when Freeport arrived here 40 years ago, Timika is now a boom town dotted with bars, brothels, gold-processing shops and various military personnel. Under Indonesian law, Freeport is a designated “strategic industry”, which mandates that external security for the mine, its access roads and its pipelines all be provided exclusively by Indonesia’s security forces.

Freeport never implicated
Freeport has never been implicated in any human rights abuses allegedly committed by the Indonesian military in Papua.

Freeport McMoRan, based in Phoenix, Arizona, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The company’s website defends its method of disposal of tailings at Grasberg, managed by PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), an affiliate company: “PTFI’s controlled riverine tailings management system, which has been approved by the Indonesian government, uses the unnavigable river system in the mountainous highlands near our mine to transport tailings to an engineered area in the lowlands where the tailings and other sediments are managed in a deposition area.”

A 2009 report by the company says it utilises levees to contain tailings in the deposition area, and that the tailings management programme costs Freeport McMoRan $15.5m (£12.7m) each year. According to the report, company monitoring of aquatic life in the rivers found that fish and shrimp were suitable for consumption, as regulated by Indonesian food standards, while water quality samples met Indonesian and US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards for dissolved metals. In a 2011 BBC report (pdf) on alleged pollution in the area surrounding Grasberg, the company says that the tailings management method was chosen because studies showed the environmental impact caused by its waste material was reversible.

Elsewhere on its website, the company says: “We are committed to respecting human rights. Our human rights policy requires us (and our contractors) to conduct business in a manner consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to align our human rights due diligence practices with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UN Guiding Principles).”

The company also emphasises its work with indigenous people in West Papua. A 2015 Freeport McRoRan report on working towards sustainable development said: “PTFI has engaged with indigenous Papuan tribes for decades, including through numerous formal agreements to promote workforce skills training, health, education and basic infrastructure development … In 2015, PTFI continued to evaluate the effectiveness of alternate options for Kamoro community members whose estuary transport routes are impacted by sedimentation associated with the controlled riverine tailings management system. Provision of smaller sized boats, in addition to 50 passenger vessels, for route flexibility as well as additional local economic development programmes were identified as additional mitigation measures during the year.”

Back in the area surrounding the Grasberg mine, many Papuans, struggling for work, find themselves pulled into the bar and sex industries that cater to the miners, particularly around the highland village of Banti. Here brothels and bars line up side by side, allegedly with help from the Indonesian military, who are said to supply sex workers and alcohol, according to a Freeport source who wished to remain anonymous.

Newfound promiscuity
Indigenous chiefs have watched as a newfound promiscuity has brought sexually transmitted infections that have ravaged their communities. “Traditional Papuan culture forbids free sex, but alcohol makes our communities vulnerable,” says the Amungme chief, Martin Mangal. “And brothels make it easy to contract HIV.”

HIV rates in West Papua are of “epidemic” proportions, according to the UN, 15 times higher than anywhere else in Indonesia. Driven almost entirely by unsafe sex, HIV is also far more prevalent among indigenous Papuans. Yet the existence of only one hospital – built by Freeport – means that most people, particularly those in remote highland villages, don’t get the help they need.

Late last year, the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, claimed he was willing to work towards a “better Papua”: “I want to listen to the people’s voices.”

However, human rights violations have actually increased since Widodo took power, according to Indonesia’s Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras), which has logged 1,200 incidents of harassment, beatings, torture and killings of Papuans by Indonesian security forces since his election in 2014.

The Indonesian government did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The country’s military has consistently denied any wrongdoing in Papua.

Despite everything, there have been small glimmers of hope. This summer, Dutch human rights law firm Prakken D’Oliveira submitted a formal legal complaint against Indonesia to the UN Human Rights Council, accusing the government of “long-term, widespread and systematic human rights violations” and the “complete denial of the right to self-determination of the people of West-Papua”.

Later this year, West Papua is expected to be granted full membership of the Melanesian Spearhood Group, an important sub-regional coalition of countries including Fiji, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.

The Brisbane commission, which warned of the risk of genocide, is calling on Indonesia to allow Papua, once and for all, the right to self-determination.

Yet some fear the opportunity for change in Papua is long gone.

“Is healing even possible?” asked Professor Agus Sumule, shaking his head. “It could be too late.”

Susan Schulman is an award-winning video/photojournalist. She moved from her native New York to London in 1990. During the past 10 years she has chronicled many of the world’s forgotten tragedies, from the horrors of childbirth in Sierra Leone and child soldiers in Sudan to the wretched plight of gold miners in the Amazon basin. This article was first published in The Guardian and has been republished here with the permission of both the author and The Guardian. Go to The Guardian for full images and resource links.

How mining and militarisation led to an HIV epidemic in Papua

Martina Wanago was sick. In fact, she was sure she would die. She had contracted HIV, which has reached epidemic proportions here in Indonesia’s remote and restive province of Papua. And like many of those infected, she didn’t know what was wrong with her.

“All I could do was just wait for God to call me,” Wanago said, closing her eyes as firelight flickered on her face in a traditional roundhouse in Kambele, a remote artisanal mining village deep in cloud-shrouded mountains.

But it was here, in this unlikely spot, that she found salvation. Or rather, she found treatment – at the Waa Waa Hospital in the nearby community of Banti.

The hospital was built by Freeport McMoRan, one of the world’s largest mining companies, based in Phoenix, Arizona. It is one of very few positive developments that the industry has brought to indigenous Papuans.

The Indonesian government’s mining ministry is said to have recommended the granting of a new short-term export permit to Freeport-McMoRan’s Grasberg mine in West Papua.

Freeport’s local subsidiary is required to apply for renewal of export permits at six-month intervals.

In February 2016, an export permit was renewed by the trade ministry through August 8, 2016.

Reuters cited Bambang Gatot, Director-General of Coal and Minerals, within the mining ministry, as saying the latest renewal would run for less than six months until January 11, but did not explain why.

The company is still in discussions with government to obtain an extension of its long-term rights under its original contract-of-work agreement as it looks to extend operations beyond 2021.

It has agreed to construct new smelter capacity in Indonesia and to divest an additional 20.64 percent interest in PT Freeport Indonesia at fair market value.

The Indonesian government continues to impose a 5 percent export duty while it reviews the company’s smelter plans.

In the six months to end-June, Grasberg produced 169,000 tonnes of copper and 336,000 ounces of gold at a copper cash cost of US$1.22 per pound after gold and silver credits.

“The US ambassador said that Papua was important to the US, and he felt it was necessary to pay a visit to Papua. He wanted to know about Papua’s human rights and political condition,” said Yuliano Languwuyo, coordinator of local organisation Justice, Peace and Unity Secretariat (SKPKC).

Yuliano said the organisation was told in mid-2014 that the restive easternmost province of Indonesia, Papua, would have civilian leaders and see a steady downgrade of military presence in the area.

“If they disappeared, so would the violence. But it never happened,” he said.

Tight military monitoring of Freeport Indonesia sites in the province have a largely negative impact on locals, including reports of violence from officers, Yuliano said.

“We asked the ambassador if Freeport had any control over security, and if they [security personnel] have any training in human rights while performing their duties. They have to be trained by the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM] so they will be less violent when protecting the areas,” he said.

Blake reportedly questioned the necessity of human rights training and refused to comment on Freeport’s security, Yuliano said.

Blake also refused to take questions from reporters after the meeting.

The meeting was held at a restaurant in Jayapura’s East Sentani district and was attended by Yuliano, chairman of the Papuan NGO Cooperation Forum Septer Manufandu, Papua Komnas HAM chairman Frits Ramandey and Papuan Peace Network activist Neles Tebay.

By Wilda Asmarini In Jakarta

Freeport McMoRan Inc has asked Indonesia to reduce a US$530 million smelter bond the local unit of the US copper mining giant must set aside before receiving an extension of its export permit, says Indonesia’s mining minister.

Freeport’s 6-month copper concentrate export permit expired last week amid a deadlock over the bond, which Indonesia has requested as a guarantee that the miner will complete construction of another local smelter.

“They have appealed to ask whether we can postpone it or give them a discount, but we asked them to show their commitment in another equivalent way,” Energy and Mines Minister Sudirman Said told reporters, referring to an exchange of letters with the Phoenix, Arizona-based company.

Freeport, which runs one of the world’s biggest copper mines in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua, usually produces about 220,000 tonnes of copper ore a day. A prolonged stoppage in shipments would hit the company’s profits and deny Jakarta desperately needed revenue from one of its biggest taxpayers.

Indonesia wants the deposit as a guarantee that the mining giant will complete construction of another local smelter. The amount would add to an estimated $80 million Freeport set aside in July 2015 to obtain its just-expired export permit.

Freeport Indonesia could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. The US miner wants to invest $18 billion to expand its operations at Grasberg, but is seeking government assurances that its right to mine at Grasberg will be extended.

Its current contract – which gives it the right to work and develop the Grasberg complex – expires in 2021. By Indonesian law, this contract cannot be extended until 2019 at the soonest.

A memorandum of understanding agreed in July 2014 between the government and Freeport, which ended a seven-month export stoppage and outlined a timetable for a contract extension and smelter construction, had now expired, Said said.

An agreement that would maintain operations and investment preparations ahead of contract renewal talks in 2019, was a way to resolve the current problems, he said.

Indonesia blocks Freeport copper exports from Papua in deadlock

By Bernadette Christina Munthe and Fergus Jensen

Freeport McMoRan Inc has lost its right to export copper concentrate, valued at more than $1 billion, from one of the world’s biggest mines as talks with Indonesia’s government remained deadlocked over payment for a new metal smelter.

Freeport’s six-month licence to export concentrate expired last Thursday and it was unclear how soon a new one would be issued as the two sides have yet to resolve a government demand that the US firm first pay a $530 million deposit, reports Reuter.

“Without an export permit, there can be no exports. The exporter knows that,” Didi Sumedi, Indonesia’s director of mining and industrial products said via text message.

However, it was not clear if exports had actually stopped at Freeport’s Grasberg mine in the province of Papua, one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines.

Asked if overseas shipments had ceased, a Freeport spokesman said “everything is normal”, without elaborating.

Last year, Freeport sold 744 million pounds of copper concentrate from Grasberg, valued at around $1.73 billion, according to the company’s fourth-quarter financial results.

Prolonged stoppage
A prolonged stoppage in exports would hit Freeport’s profits and deny the Indonesian government desperately needed revenue from one of its biggest taxpayers. It could also buoy global copper prices, which have slipped more than 3 percent so far this year on worries about oversupply.

But in the short-term, traders do not expect any major market reaction.

“If it lasts a couple of months, sure we may see an impact. But with the new mines and mine expansions this year, the market is fairly well covered at the minute,” said a concentrates trader in Asia.

Indonesia has said it was open to negotiations with Freeport on the $530-million deposit and that if the company did not want to pay, it must provide an alternative to demonstrate its commitment to expanding the country’s smelter capacity.

Indonesia wants the deposit as a guarantee that the Phoenix, Arizona-based company will complete construction of another local smelter. The amount would add to an estimated $80 million that Freeport set aside in July 2015 to obtain its current export permit.

Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson said late on Tuesday the government’s demand for a smelter deposit was “inconsistent” with an agreement reached between the two sides in mid-2014.

Greater share
According to that agreement, Freeport must sell the government a greater share of the Grasberg mine, and invest in domestic processing to win an extension of its mining contract beyond 2021.

The US mining giant wants to invest $18 billion to expand its operations at Grasberg, but is seeking government assurances first that it will get a contract extension.

Freeport’s long-held desire to continue mining in Indonesia beyond 2021 has been beset by controversy, including cabinet infighting, resignations and a major political scandal that led to the resignation of the parliamentary speaker.