Govt send team to investigate Freeport landslide incident

The government has sent a team of nine to investigate the landslide incident at the gold mining firm PT Freeport Indonesia mining site in Papua province which had caused four employees missing.

Media Indonesia quoted Ministry of Mines and Energy press statement as saying that the team included people from the ministry and experts from the Ministry of Environment.

The team had left Jakarta on Saturday.

The landslide incident occurred last week. Freeport blamed it on the heavy rainfall.

The Indonesian Forum for Environment or popularly called Walhid had planned to take a legal suit against Freeport over the incident. Walhi said that similar incidents had also occurred at the company.

Legislator Irwan Prayitno welcome the sending of the government investigation team, but said that it would be better if the team included people from Walhi or other non-governmental organizations to ensure objectivity of the investigation result. (*)