Walhi sues Freeport over Wanagon accident
Friday, July 28 2000 - 02:30 AM WIB
The Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), in cooperation with non-governmental legal organizations, has sued gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia over the breakdown of its Wanagon tailing disposal site that claimed four lives.
Walhi executive director Emmy Hafild and lawyers including R. Dwiyanto Prihartono (PBHI), Bambang Widjojanto (YLBHI), Abdul Haris Semendawai (Elsam), Chairilsyah (Alperudi), Hotma Timbul (PBHI), Aulia Hidayat (Jaringan Advokasi Tambang/ Jatam), Albert Rumbekwan (ELS-HAM Irian Jaya), and Ersan Budiman (Alperudi) filed the lawsuit with the South Jakarta District Court on Thursday.
Emmy told a press conference at her office that Walhi charged that Freeport deliberately gave false and misleading information about its environmental management and the Wanagon accident.
She said her lawsuit was based on Law No. 23/1997 on Environmental Management, article 6 point 2 that says: "Anyone that do business and/or activities is obliged to give true and accurate information about environmental management."
Walhi, Emmy said, found five evidences that supported Freeport's manipulation of information. They are Freeport's press release on May 5, 2000; a hearing between Freeport management and the House of Representatives' Commission VIII on June 28, 2000; press statement on May 24, 2000; 1998 annual report; and press statement on Dec. 22, 1999.
In its press statement on May 24, 2000, Freeport stated that it did not find any evidence that the Wanagon incident could cause bad impacts on the environment and human health. But a press statement by the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bappedal) on May 17 stated that sludge that spilled over from the Wanagon lake was a toxic material and therefore it is dangerous for human health.
In its annual report, Freeport said that the Wanagon disaster was caused by incessant rains that exceeded normal level. However, based on investigation by Call & Nicholas Inc., a consultant hired by Walhi, rainfall during the time of the Wanagon accident reached only normal level.
And in its press statement on Dec. 22, 2000, Freeport released an arbitrary environmental audit by Montgomery Watson that praised Freeport's environmental management that should be made a model of environmental management by other mining companies in the world. This contradicts with a statement from Bappedal and the office of state minister of environment that stated Freeport's tailing disposal to Wanagon lake constituted a negative example of bad mining practices in Indonesia. (*)