Freeport, Walhi open reconciliation

The recent meeting between the senior manager at PT Freeport Indonesia's environmental department, Bruce E. Marsh, and the executive director of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), Emmy Hafild, in Biak recently shows a reconciliation approach from the two sides.

Benny Giay, a teacher at the Walter Post theological school, Irian Jaya, said that the meeting was sponsored by the church, and the meeting itself was productive toward reconciliation between the two parties.

"The two parties wanted to evaluate the past situation and agreed that any shortcoming needs to be improved so that the people would be the ones that would decide the future of Freeport," Benny said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, Freeport's vice president for corporate communications, Yuli Ismartono, said her party acknowledged that the company's mining activities had caused negative impacts to the environment.

"But it needs to be understood that as one of the world's largest mining companies, Freeport does not close its eyes to the impacts of its mining operations," she said.

She noted that Freeport was trying to become a company that is responsible for the protection of the environment and people around its mining sites. (*)