Natural disasters a result of excessive exploitation of natural resources: Walhi

Natural disasters such as flooding and landslides plaguing Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Manado (North Sulawesi) and Taliwang in Sumbawa island (West Nusa Tenggara) are the results of excessive exploitation of natural resources, especially exploitation of forests by the government to repay its mounting foreign debts.

According to the Indonesian Environmental Forum's (Walhi) West Nusa Tenggara branch, the government's massive foreign debt burden, with a debt service ratio of 52 percent out of its total foreign debt of US$148 billion, had forced the government to take short-cut ways in raising foreign exchanges by granting forest and mining concessions to foreign companies.

An executive of Walhi's West Nusa Tenggara branch, Bambang Mei Finarwanto, said in a statement on Tuesday (Nov. 5) that the government had got new grounding to allow excessive exploitation of natural resources through the Structural Adjustment Program, designed by Indonesia's main multilateral financial donors including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF, through the government's letter of intent (LOI), has demanded speeder liberalization of Indonesia's economy and demanded the government to abolish all factors that could hinder the processes of economic liberalization, such as the government's logs export policy, and mining contracts of works.

Bambang called on the administration of President Abdurrahman Wahid to stand up against the wishes of foreign capitalists that wanted to exploit Indonesia's natural resources. He even called the government to take drastic measures to counter the IMF and other donors' move that continuously undermine Indonesia's sovereignty.

He noted that Indonesia better followed the path of Kuba, Iran and Iraq to maintain its sovereignty but with no foreign debt rather than bowing to international pressure with excessive debt burden.

He also called on the government to stand up and take drastic measures in demanding transparency from multinational mining companies on how much they have exploited Indonesia's natural resources.

He said the government must know exactly how many minerals produced by big mining companies such as Freeport, and Newmont so that the government knew how much the companies actually had to pay for royalties and other obligations to the government and local administrations.

So far, Bambang said, the calculations of royalties were conducted by respective companies, without transparency.

He expressed his disgust over the West Nusa Tenggara legislative body that always questioned why Newmont Nusa Tenggara paid the royalties to the central government, not to local administration, but did not question why Newmont did not want to disclose what minerals and how many they really mined in West Nusa Tenggara. (*)