Allegations of “hijacking and manipulation” of a Papua New Guinea national government sanctioned validation exercise at the Porgera mine in Enga province have been raised, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

Tieni Wuape clan leader from the Special Mining Lease (SML) Janet Yuwi told the Post-Courier that a landowner group was allegedly misleading the Mining Department team in Porgera on unsanctioned venues for the validation process.

“A public notice published by the Ministry of Mining in the print media recently had sanctioned sites, villages and communities to be visited during the validation exercise but that was not happening,” she said.

• READ MORE: K630m to restart Porgera mine with new deal for PNG landowners

Yuwi said she had waited in vain at Yarik Kanaga on the date scheduled which was on Monday, July 26, with other clan members.

She said the landowners were later informed that the voting was hosted by Mamai clan at Panadaka village which was totally unacceptable and not according to the sanctioned sites.

“We saw the Mining Department’s notice on the paper (print media) dated 19 Jul, 2021 and we were at the site at Yarik, Kanaga, and we waited the whole day and later we heard that it was done at Panadaka village,” Yuwi said.

She said the landowners were happy with the state’s decision to allow SML landowners to appoint their new clan agents since the original agents have passed on and some were replaced by their sons.

‘Good initiative’
“It is such a good initiative to appoint new agents for a new Porgera.

“For the last 30 years, clan agents have been hiding and never informed landowners of their share.

“From such experience, we will appoint new agents who will be honest and remain in Porgera and not in Port Moresby,” Yuwi said.

She said the state team should work independently and refrain from favouring one group of landowners.

She said Prime Minister James Marape’s government was anticipating the completion of the validation exercise to enable the appointed agents from the 25 sub-clans to participate in mining development forums and other government sanctioned forums.

Last month, Asia Pacific Report carried an article reporting that it would cost the Papua New Guinea state and Australian operator Barrick Niugini Ltd K630 million (US$180 million) to reopen the Porgera gold mine.

The reopening of the mine in early September will see Barrick paying out full benefits of all employees who were retrenched, including those in care and maintenance, and they will be recruited under the new Porgera mine structure.

Indonesian ­ activists have deplored the recent jailing of two indigenous community members in Sumatra in a land conflict involving an affiliate of pulp and paper giant Royal Golden Eagle.

The Simalungun District Court, in North Sumatra province, handed down nine-month sentences to Jonny Ambarita and Thomson Ambarita, who are elders from the Sihaporas community, for assaulting an employee of PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL), an RGE affiliate company.

The Sihaporas community and PT TPL have been embroiled in a dispute for decades over land to which both lay claim.

READ MORE: Will Asia Pulp and Paper default on its ‘zero-deforestation’ commitments?

As in most such cases in Indonesia, the authorities have sided with corporate interests and pursued criminal charges against the community, said Agustin Simamora, head of the advocacy at the provincial chapter of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN).

“The judges ignored all the facts in this case. This [ruling] is very regrettable,” he said.

The sentences, handed down Feb. 13, cap a trial sparked by an incident last September in which the company, or people claiming to represent it, appeared to be the side escalating the legal wrangling into a violent conflict.

Scuffle broke out
On the morning of September 16, 2019, according to the community members, a group of men claiming to be PT TPL employees arrived in their village and demanded that they cease their farming activity and leave the area.

The farmers refused, and a scuffle broke out, during which the 3-year-old son of one of the community members was reportedly hit by one of the purported company representatives. The child passed out and had to be taken to a nearby public health center.

The following day, leaders of the Sihaporas community went to a nearby police station to file a report about the alleged assault on the child. But the officers refused to receive their complaint, telling them instead to file it at a different precinct office.

Officers from that larger precinct later issued a summons for Jonny and Thomson Ambarita to appear for questioning on September 24. Unknown to the community, PT TPL had filed its own report with the police, alleging that the farmers had assaulted one of its employees in the earlier skirmish.

When Jonny and Thomson showed up at the police station, they were promptly charged and arrested.

In the months since then, they have been indicted, tried, and convicted. But police have still not acted on the community’s report on the alleged attack on the child.

Sahat Hutagalung, the lawyer for Jonny and Thomson Ambarita, called the guilty verdict unfair.

Evidence ignored
Like other observers of the trial, he questioned why much of the evidence presented in court that corroborated the community’s account ­ including witness testimony and videos of the incident ­ was ignored.

“Unfortunately, it was overlooked by the judges,” Sahat said.

Hundreds of members of the Sihaporas community turned up at the courthouse to hear the verdict and demand that Jonny and Thomson be acquitted. Community members said the trial was a familiar ordeal for them: from 2002 to 2004, three other indigenous members were arrested after PT TPL complained they were farming in the disputed area.

Arisman Ambarita was jailed for three months in 2002, while Mangitua Ambarita and Parulian Ambarita were each sentenced in 2004 to two years in prison.

The Sihaporas community has since the early 1900s claimed ancestral rights to a large swath of forest in what is today North Tapanuli district in the province of North Sumatra, where it continues to practice subsistence farming.

In 1913, it loaned part of the land to the Dutch colonial authorities for a pine plantation. After Indonesia won independence from the Dutch, the new government claimed the pine forest, among other Dutch-run assets and properties at the time, as belonging to the Indonesian state.

In 1992, the government issued a pulpwood permit in the area to PT TPL, for a concession covering 185,000 hectares (457,000 acres). The Sihaporas community contends that 40,000 ha (98,800 acres) of that concession is part of its ancestral territory. PT TPL has already planted half of the disputed area with eucalyptus.

No responses
In its campaign to free Jonny and Thomson, the Sihaporas community took its case to Indonesia’s National Commission for Human Rights last October. Community elders also sent three letters to President Joko Widodo to demand state recognition of their ancestral lands and ask the government to revoke PT TPL’s permit.

There have been no responses to any of those initiatives.

Since 2013, when a landmark Constitutional Court ruling struck down the state’s claim to indigenous peoples’ forests, President Widodo has recognized the rights of 55 indigenous groups to forest areas spanning a combined 24,800 ha. AMAN, the indigenous rights advocacy group, says it has mapped out some 7.8 million ha of land it says belongs to 704 indigenous communities nationwide, including the Sihaporas community.

“When did land ownership certificates come about? Only after Indonesia came into being as a nation,” said Domu Ambarita, a historian for the Sihaporas community. “But indigenous peoples have existed and lived on their customary lands since before Indonesia was established.”

Domu said it was important to recognize the Sihaporas as the stewards of their land at a time when Indonesia is losing its forest at alarming rates to agriculture and other land-use changes.

“Our rituals exist alongside and protect nature,” he said. “If the ancestral forest is owned and seized by PT TPL, everything will be destroyed. We completely reject that.”

This story was first reported by Mongabay’s Indonesia team and republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a Creative Commons licence. Ayat S. Karokaro is a Mongabay contributor. Translated by Basten Gokkon.

The Pacific Media Centre’s Del Abcede joined the Ihumātao “protectors” protest at the weekend to soak up the atmosphere of guardianship over the future of the sacred indigenous Māori site.

Fletcher Building plans to build 480 homes on the site but work has been suspended by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern while talks continue between various stakeholders.

The SOUL (Save Our Unique Landscape) protectors group says the land has historical, cultural and archaeological significance and should be left an open space or returned to mana whenua.

The block of land was confiscated in 1863 by British colonial authorities, acquired by the Crown and sold to the Wallace family. In 2016, the 32ha block was bought by the Fletcher group for housing development.

Here is a portfolio of Del’s images.

• The Ihumātao land rights struggle – a timeline
• Iwi against Ihumātao protest social media pages shutdown
• More Ihumātao stories

Ihumātao - protecting the future

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New Zealand police have pepper-sprayed two dogs and arrested three more people at the site of a controversial land dispute in South Auckland, reports RNZ.

The site at Ihumātao near Auckland Airport is zoned for housing development but has been the subject of a bitter dispute between local iwi and private construction company Fletcher Building.

Yesterday three people were arrested after police and kaumatua (elders) arrived on site to deliver eviction notices to the demonstrators, some of whom had been occupying the land for months.

READ MORE: Why Ihumātao is being occupied by ‘protectors’

While protesters remained overnight, peacefully singing waiata and sitting around a campfire, tensions again erupted when Fletcher trucks began entering the site at 8am this morning.

A spokesperson for the protesters group SOUL, Pania Newton, said that was despite an agreement with police that no more vehicles would go through.

Police ‘breach trust’
“The police have breached our trust. We no longer have any confidence in the New Zealand police,” she said.

According to RNZ, police said protesters attempted to obstruct a truck from gaining access through the cordon and two were arrested.

One woman will face charges of obstruction and being unlawfully on a vehicle, police said. A second person will be given a pre-charge warning for obstruction before being released.

Police said the dogs were pepper-sprayed because they were “uncontrolled and aggressive.”

Sacred land
Ihumātao is part of land considered wāhi tapu (sacred) by local hapū and iwi as it sits next to Ōtuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve, home to New Zealand’s earliest market gardens and a 600-year-old archaeological and burial site.

While 32 hectares of the land is owned by Fletchers Building, protesters have been occupying the site in a gesture of resistance against the planned housing development.

During yesterday’s confrontation, Spinoff reported one protester criticising police for their participation in evicting kaitiaki [guardians] on behalf of the foreign-owned Fletchers.

“Complicit in colonisation”
“You’re complicit in colonisation. The armed constabulary at Parihaka were just doing their job. Apartheid police in South Africa were just doing their job,” she said.

Videos on the SOUL Facebook page shows more demonstrators arriving at the site, singing songs and performing haka before a growing police presence.

Meanwhile, 300 protesters descended on Parliament in Wellington today in a show of solidarity with the people of Ihumātao, reported RNZ.

Protest organiser Tamatha Paul was urging the police force to stand down and all parties to get together to resolve the issue according to tikanga Māori.

Yesterday, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson spoke in support of the occupants saying they were on the right side of history and her heart went out to them.

“Unjust land confiscation”
“I wanted the government to come to a better solution and negotiate directly with mana whenua, so I’m really sad that it has come to this, which is a continuation of unjust land confiscation,” she said.

Stuff.co.nz has been criticised on social media for referring to the demonstrations as an “illegal occupation” despite the fact that the Crown confiscated the whenua (land) from Māori during the invasion of the Waikato in 1863.

In a show of frustration over the nonpayment of a business development grant, Angore landowners in Hela province have set fire to the massive Hides development LNG machinery on PDL 8 site as unrest continues in Papua New Guinea’s rugged Highlands region.

The destruction includes an excavator and a drilling machine while sections of a highway leading to PDL 8 have been dug up, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

In other developments:

• Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Members of Parliament, including ministers, will travel to Mendi today to reinforce the work of the state of emergency team.
• Local community leaders involved in the failed election petition which triggered the unrest travelled to Mendi yesterday.
• Police have 15 names to kickstart their investigations into last week’s Mendi rioting, says
  Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Operations David Manning.
• O’Neill condemned calls for his resignation, saying the country needed strong leadership.

READ MORE: ‘Pushing for civil war’ – fears riots could turn into widespread conflict in PNG

According to the Post-Courier’s Kevin Teme, local sources revealed that the Angore landowners – particularly from the PDL 8 site – are angry over their outstanding business development grant (BDG) which is kept in the trust and is not being released.

While the government has recently released K35 million as project security fees to Hides landowners of PDL 1 and PDL 4, the Angore landowners are frustrated over how Exxon Mobil and the state has dealt with this issue.

‘Rubbish’ claims
Spokesman Max Ekeya said various claims on social media about asking the Prime Minister to step down and others were rubbish as this was not the true information that caused the riot and burning down of the machinery at the PDL 8 site.

“The Angore landowners are showing their frustration because they have not got their BDG while other landowners from Hides PDL 1 and 4 just got K35 million as project security fees in which K20 million went to PDL 1 and K15million to PDL 4,” Ekeya said.

“The landowners are not asking the Prime Minister to step down, but are asking the government to release their business development grants,” Ekeya said.

In a telephone interview with Tom Homake, a civil engineer with Hides Gas Development Company, he confirmed that all machines, including an excavator at the PDL 8 site, were burnt early yesterday.

“Information on setting alight the Eneria pipeline is not true and that’s just hear say. But I cannot confirm that,” Homake said when asked if the pipelines had also been set on fire.

“Other Hides areas, including the PDL 1 and PDL 4 up to PDL 7 area, are okay as I speak. We are on site doing a road projects from Takali to Komo and I can confirm that on ground,” Homake said.

Homake said this could change.

He said the Angore PDL 8 landowners were now asking the national government and Exxon Mobile to come and make their payment.

Plea for intervention
Meanwhile, spokesman Ekeya has called on the government to quickly intervene as he believes opportunists might take the law into their own hands and this may cause another destruction altogether.

Prime Minister O’Neill and MP planned to leave for Mendi today.

The Prime Minister expressed disappointment that the Southern Highlands provincial police commander had made statements outside his responsibility.

He urged police to carry out their duty in maintaining the rule of law and investigating offences without interference from politics.

“I am surprised that the PPC appears out of touch as reports are that he was not present in Mendi when the burning of state assets took place,” the Prime Minister said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Operations David Manning told the Post-Courier that at least 15 suspects in the rioting had already been identified to police and would be the subject of further investigation.

Manning said all suspects would be investigated indiscriminately and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“In the course of our investigation, we will be looking at all angles, because we need to ensure that anyone who had even the remotest involvement in the incident is investigated,” he said.

• More Mendi riot stories

By Scott Waide in Lae

Landowning clans in the Papua New Guinean city of Lae are threatening to close down five fish processing plants if the government does not review the existing agreements that govern them.

The clans, which include the Ahi and the Busulum, say they have been cheated of development benefits.

Since the agreements were signed four years ago, they have received K5000 a year for the five portions of land they own.

The threat comes after three years of complicated wrangling with the government and the companies over landowner benefits.

If the landowners have it their way, Majestic Seafoods, Frabelle and three other fish processing factories will be forced to shut down next Tuesday.

Landowner company BUP Development is calling on the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) to review the existing agreements so that they receive more in terms of landowner benefits.

Bad deal
After four years, it has now become clear, landowners got a bad deal.

The landowners are paid a total of K5000 (NZ$2225) annually for the five land portions they leased to the companies. The deal was negotiated by the provincial administration at the start of the projects.

Apart from a K2 million (NZ$890,000) premium payment made several years ago, the landowners receive little else.

They are also not party to agreements between the state and the fish processing companies.

They also do not know what the terms of the state agreement are.

The landowner company since issued a 7-day notice to the government to come to Lae for negotiations.

They are demanding K20 million in compensation as well as a review of the memorandum of agreement they signed with the companies.

Scott Waide is EMTV’s Lae bureau chief and began his career with the television station in 1997 as a news and sports reporter and anchor. He has won several awards for his journalism. This article is republished with permission.

• More PNG stories

Seven people from Pomio in East New Britain have been barred from entering their land for the past six years after a restraining order was issued against them in 2012.

The landowners include Paul Pavol Palusualrea and Nobert Pames who have been vocal against “land grabbing” and widespread deforestation in the remote district.

The National Court in Kokopo set aside the restraining orders after finding that there was a lack of evidence.

The landowners were represented by lawyers from the Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR).

“We are happy to have won the case for our clients who are from the forested
communities of West Pomio, whose resources have been exploited through SABL. They are now able to move freely on the land that is rightly theirs and continue the SABL campaigns of ridding the logging giants,” said lawyer Everlyn Wohuinangu.

Oil palm plantations
The Pomio District is the site of a controversial Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL) where large tracts of rainforest have been logged and replaced by oil palm plantations.

The dispute over the logging and land grabbing triggered the six-year legal battle between the landowners and local companies sponsored by the Malaysian logging company.

The court victory is also important for customary landowners in other parts of the country who are battling multi-national loggers.

“The restraining orders were nothing more than intimidation of local people,” said CELCOR director Peter Bosip.

“It stopped them from accessing land to grow food and to hunt.

“There has also been instances of police intimidation and intimidation by other parties.

“Other landowners should see this and stand firm in pursuing recognition of their rights. This was, simply, a suppression of their constitutional rights.”

Scott Waide is deputy editor of EMTV News based in Lae, Papua New Guinea. This article was first published on his blog My Land, My Country and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

• More PNG stories

They demonstrated in Arawa in central Bougainville and blockaded the route to the derelict Panguna copper mine late last week in a bid to prevent the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and Bougainville Copper Limited, which has disputed ownership of the mine.

The women also succeeded in getting a court injunction against the mine agreement in the National Court in Port Moresby on Friday afternoon.

Llane Munau was there to capture the women’s protest on camera.

• Full story, video

'Women own the land'

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Pacific Media Centre News Desk

Panguna women protesters have blockaded the copper mine to prevent the signing of a memorandum of understanding by the Bougainville government with the company and also won a court injunction.

Justice Kandakasi ordered in the Waigani National Court on Friday that the MOA cannot be signed until further notice.

Philip Miriori, chairman of the Special Mining Lease Osikaiyang Landowners Inc., welcomed the restraining order.

He said it was good to see that protection from “unjust deprivation of property” under Section 53 of the Constitution of PNG – and preserved in the Constitution of the Autonomous Bougainville Government (Section 180) as adopted by the Bougainville Constituent Assembly at Buin on 12 November 2004 – was being enforced.

The Bougainville Freedom Movement also congratulated the women of Bougainville and their supporters for stopping the Bougainville government on Friday from signing a new agreement for Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) to reopen the Panguna mine.

“The handpicked BCL landowners who were supposed to sign the agreement for the company were brought to a halt, thanks to the road block protest held on Friday,” said BFM’s Vikki John.

The Panguna mine was abandoned by in 1989 after frustration by landowners erupted into a decade-long armed uprising and a push for Bougainville independence from Papua New Guinea.

‘Seven sisters’ roadblock
Loop PNG reports: “The impenetrable roadblock was led by women chief from the ‘seven sisters’ areas in Central Bougainville.

The mothers, together with their daughters, youths, ex-combatants and Bougainville hardliners, set up the roadblock, which started on Thursday night and lasted throughout Friday. They refused to move for passing vehicles or negotiating team.

“Their message was simple: ‘No BCL, No Mining’.

A woman chief from Guava Village, Maggie Mirau Nombo, and a chief from Arawa and Pirurari, Kavatai Baria, said their land was their ‘Mother’, who provided their everyday needs and no one was allowed to exploit her.

“Chief Maggie, who is a former primary school teacher, said how could those wanting to sign the MOA conduct such an act of injustice?

“She said this would never happen again because they had suffered enough from all the injustice that had been brought on by BCL when it was in operation.

“She said God had heard the cry of the Bougainville women, and justice would prevail.

“As long as I am the Chief from Panguna and Guava Village and owner of my land, BCL is not welcome. This is the company that has killed our sons and daughters. ABG has to stop ignoring the cries of the women and take note that BCL is never allowed to come back to Panguna, and this is final and it is not negotiable,” she said.

“Chief Kavatai also reminded everyone that ‘when God closes a door, no one can open it, and if God opens a door, no one can close it’.

“Panguna Mine was closed by God and if anyone was trying to reopen the mine when it wasn’t God’s timing, then they had better watch out because they were fighting against a big God.

“Because of the strong opposition by the women, youths and Bougainville hardliners, the high-powered ABG delegation, led by President John Momis, returned to Buka on Friday afternoon without signing the MOA.”

The Papua New Guinea 2017 general election is June 24 until July 8.

• Panguna women landowners say BCL didn’t consult and ‘isn’t welcome’

By Freddy Mou in Port Moresby

More than 1000 protesters from four villages Portion 152 where the Papua New Guinea LNG plant sits have gathered on site to demonstrate over their overdue royalty payments.

The villagers were from Papa, Boera, Porebada and Lealea and they blockaded ovehicle access into the plant site.

Spokesperson and chairman of the Porebada Besena Association, Judah Matt Baru, said  they had not received any payment since the first shipment of LNG in 2014.

He said the government had promised repeatedly to pay its royalties but never kept its promises.

“We cannot sit and spectate on our own land. The government must come good with their promises or else we will shut the plant site for an indefinite period,” Baru said.

Baru said their petition was being given to the government but nothing had been done.

Meanwhile, police have been deployed to the site and are manning the entry gate.

Protest condemned
The Provincial Police Commander for Central Province, Superintendent Laimo Asi, today condemned the protest.

Asi said no approval was given by authorities to stage the protest.

The commander, who was at earlier today, said he had warned landowners not to cause any damage to the plant site but to allow the operation to continue as normal.

He had advised them that the protest was illegal and while the landowners had been reluctant to back off, they promised to do it peacefully.

Asi said his men were on the ground to protect facilities and to ensure the protest did not turn rowdy.

Freddy Mou is a senior Loop PNG journalist.

Papua New Guinea’s Hides gas landowners from PDL 1 and 7 have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Papua New Guinea government team, paving the way for a return to “normalcy” at the troubled LNG project.

Petroleum and Energy Minister Nixon Duban was present at the signing of the MOU and agreed to honour all the issues in the landowners’ petition and tied them in the time frame. He signed the document.

All the points in the points in the petition were locked in with the MOU and the minister confirmed to take it with him to the national executive council for further action.

The government showed proof of a bank print out of royalty money held in the Bank of the South Pacific (BSP) and Bank of PNG. The government officers flew in yesterday to start the clan vetting process and to open up the bank account for  locals so the payments can be made.

Bank officers and NID officers will fly in next week and complete process within 30 days to pay the royalties to the individual landowners.

The landowners achieved their demands in the petition mission in 13 days.

They have promised to lift their blockade today.

Hides landowners shut down LNG project