[list_indonesia] [ppiindia] Illness splits an Indonesian village New Feature
- From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@freelists.org>
- Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 01:44:56 +0200
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/27/news/indo.html
Illness splits an Indonesian village New Feature
By Jane Perlez The New York Times
Monday, March 28, 2005
BUYAT BAY BEACH, Indonesia This is a simple village, where the fishermen's
families live on the sea in wooden shacks lighted by oil lamps and most
everyone knows one another. But the people are divided by more than just the
sandy track that passes for Main Street.
.
Nearly all here agree that there is illness: mysterious lumps, skin rashes,
dizziness and other ailments.
.
But arguments over whether the cause is pollution from a nearby gold mine and
whether the government should relocate the residents has pitted neighbor
against neighbor as that intimate suffering is played out on a broader stage.
.
Today, Buyat Bay is the center of an expanding dispute being fought punch by
counterpunch from the courts and government offices of Indonesia to the worn
quarters of environmental groups and the lofty Denver base of the mine's
operator, Newmont Mining, the world's largest gold producer.
.
That fight now includes criminal and civil cases brought by the government
against Newmont, a legal wrangle that has startled Indonesia's foreign
investors and placed Newmont in an unwelcome spotlight.
.
More than that, the cases have sown deep animosity and division as Newmont and
the environmental groups mobilize opposing camps in what is shaping up as a
signal battle for each side. A government lawsuit seeking $117 million was
announced March 9.
.
Most troubling to Newmont, six of its executives, including two Americans, face
criminal charges of polluting this tropical bay.
.
The executives, who vigorously deny the accusations, have been prohibited by
the court from leaving Indonesia since last October, when five of them were
jailed for a month.
.
In a setback to Newmont, the Supreme Court in Jakarta, the capital, ruled March
17 that the criminal case could go ahead.
.
Newmont denies that its operations polluted the area or affected the health of
local people. In particular, it disputes a November government report, which
forms the basis of the civil suit, that said mercury and arsenic had entered
the food chain from about five million tons of mine waste deposited in the bay
over several years.
.
Such denials have not stalled a parade of accusers, as health problems continue
to arise among local people. The residents say they have little choice but to
eat the fish from their bay and drink the water from their wells, despite
warnings in the government report that doing so may be unsafe.
.
In February, residents of Buyat Bay Village, a town of several thousand behind
this beach community, added their voices to the health complaints, citing the
mysterious death of a child last November and warning in a letter to President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that "what is occurring in Buyat Bay Village mirrors
the circumstances of Buyat Bay Beach, only on a bigger scale."
.
Nowhere has the heat of the dispute been felt more sharply than on the little
verandas and in the tiny rooms of this beach community.
.
Sharp words, glares, sullen expressions and constant worry about health pervade
virtually every conversation.
.
One of the most outspoken people is Andi Lensun, the father of Andini, a baby
whose death last July set off the charges that the villagers' illnesses were
related to heavy-metal poisoning.
.
Adding to the bitterness over the death of his baby, Lensun - whose porch is
decorated with a handmade sign that reads Relocation Yes - said that Newmont
had fired him from a modest job cleaning the beach. He said he had been told,
"We'll hire you back if you are no longer associated with the environmental
groups."
.
The company says that the work was run by a subcontractor and that Newmont had
no control over hiring.
.
Some neighbors, who favor the mine, dismissed the health complaints.
.
Hendrik Pontoh, a leader of the pro-mine faction who said he was working on a
project for Newmont planting mangrove trees, said he did not believe that the
illnesses were related to the mine, or even that all of them were real.
.
"People are expecting millions by saying they are sick," Pontoh said. "The case
is blown up because of the nongovernmental organizations. They are the brains
behind the action against the mine."
.
The intensity of the feelings is overwhelming, he said. "Now people are going
to kill each other over the differences."
.
This month, Pontoh, other villagers and local officials flew to Jakarta under
the banner of a pro-mine group, Communications Forum, for a meeting with the
health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari.
.
Soon afterward, the minister canceled a visit to the bay that would have
generated publicity about the poor health. "They told me things were normal and
it was unnecessary to come," the minister said in an interview.
.
The local government doctor, Sandra Rotty, a fierce defender of the mining
company that subsidizes her medical center, has become an especially divisive
figure.
.
In interviews many local people complained that she was unsympathetic to their
needs.
.
"The doctor told me the skin was normal," complained Halifa Modeong, 18, the
mother of a month-old girl, Aryanti, who was born with badly wrinkled skin on
her back and forehead, a condition that appeared similar to that of Andini, the
baby who died last year.
.
As treatment, Rotty gave the young mother a bottle of liquid vitamins.
.
A graduate of the Medical School of Sam Ratulangi University, which is also
subsidized by Newmont, Rotty said in an interview that she felt no need to warn
the community about the government report, issued by the Environment Ministry,
which found elevated levels of arsenic and mercury in the fish from the bay.
.
"There is no information from the Ministry of Health that the fish have high
arsenic," she said. "As long as I'm not warned by the Ministry of Health, I
don't have to tell people about it."
.
Newmont says that the fish are no different from those anywhere else in the
world and that the area has naturally occurring arsenic that may be picked up
by groundwater "in trace amounts" over time.
.
In a letter to senior Indonesian government officials in January, Robert
Gallagher, Newmont's vice president for operations in Indonesia, said that the
mine's waste disposal method had worked as promised when the government granted
a permit in 1996 and that the presence of heavy metals in the bay was "not
significantly different" than it had been.
.
Newmont has acknowledged putting 37 tons of mercury into the air and the bay.
.
Mining operations finished last August.
.
After the government issued the November report, the company moved aggressively
to improve its position and fend off its challengers.
.
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