PRESS RELEASE - Newmont Minahasa resumes its mining operations
Government, Police end land-action peacefully: Newmont
Saturday, September 9 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The Management of PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (PT NMR) announced today, Friday, that operations at their Mesel, North Sulawesi mine site had restarted after the regional government and police were able to peacefully end a demonstration that had been going on there since Tuesday afternoon. The protest, carried out by a handful of local people, was aimed at extracting more money from PT NMR for land that had been purchased from the local people in the early 1990's.
"We're very pleased with the response of the civilian government to this situation," noted Paul Lahti, General Manager of PT NMR.
"The government of North Sulawesi and the Police deserve a lot of credit for ending the illegal action of the Group of Five peacefully. This kind of quick governmental response to the problems of a major investor in Northern Sulawesi will improve the image of the province and will help attract additional investment," noted Lahti.
The arrival of Police officials from the Polres office in Tondano, some two hours from the mine site, prompted the protesting ex-landowners to enter into discussions with the management of PT NMR.
The result of the discussions was that the ex-landowners agreed to enter into one-on-one reviews of the specific grievances of each protestor as proposed by PT NMR last June. The review process will be observed by the Community Consultative Committee, a group of informal leaders chosen by the local residents to interface with PT NMR on community aspirations and social needs. The Community Consultative Committee has been in existence since 1996.
The dispute, which has led to three shutdowns of PT NMR since May 2000, is about the desire by a small group of ex-landowners to be paid additional money for land that the company already purchased from them in the early 1990's.
Of some 400 land settlement and compensation cases, only the Group of Five ex-landowners has pressed claims against the company. The company paid over five times the market rate for the land purchased through the compensation program and added to that sum for all productive trees and gardens that were taken over as well. PT NMR is hopeful that the issue can be resolved through continued dialogue and mutual understanding. The company's internal review of the land compensation process failed to find any evidence of wrongdoing or procedural errors. (*)