Papua tribe files lawsuit against Freeport

Lawyers claiming to represent a Papuan tribe have filed a lawsuit against PT Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of U.S. mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, demanding US$30 billion in damages for unspecified environmental and human rights violations, media report said Friday.

Freeport declined to comment directly on the suit, but its e-mailed statement said previous petitions making "similar baseless and human rights claims have been dismissed in both Indonesian and United States courts due to the inability of the plaintiffs to present facts to support their allegations."

Lawyers claiming to represent the Amungme tribe, which lives close to the mine, filed the suit Thursday in the South Jakarta District Court, Judge Suharto said.

Suharto said he delayed hearing the case for 40 days to give both parties time to negotiate a settlement.

The Jakarta Globe newspaper said the lawyers were seeking $30 billion in damages to compensate for unspecified environmental and human rights violations.(*)