Susan Schulman - The $100bn gold mine and what it costs the West Papuans
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.
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 4,800-metre 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’s largest province, 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 trialon trumped-up charges. Undercover
police regularly trail indigenous religious, social and political leaders.
And children still in primary school have
been jailedfor 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.”
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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... read more:
