(MENAFNEditorial)
JAKARTA January 31 2015—Human rights watchdogs urge Indonesian government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to revoke its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Freeport Indonesia which allows the company continuing raw material exports.
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) said the government just showed its powerlessness by issuing the MoU with Freeport Indonesia on January 23. Those watchdogs explained that MoU has allegedly violated the Law No.4/2009 concerning Mineral and Coal Mining.
"We urge the government to revoke the MoU with Freeport Indonesia as it has clearly violated the Mineral and Coal Mining Law" said Kontras and Jatam in a joint statement Thursday (01/29/2015).
Indonesian government has required the mining companies to build smelters and banned raw material exports since 2009 for the next five year implementation. In fact the government gives an exception for two giant miners such as Freeport and Newmont continuing their raw material export.
According to Kontras Freeport has allegedly violated human right for local communities ranging from land grabbing and environmental destruction in Papua. Meanwhile Jatam found the company dumped its tailing into Aghawagon Ajkwa and Otomona rivers more than 1.18 billion ton.
"Feeport Indonesia must be responsible over its violation on human rights and law in addition to build the smelter" said Kontras and Jatam. "The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has to carry out environmental audit due to Freeport's operation."
Instead of building the smelter in Papua Freeport Indonesia announced it was going to lease the land in Gresik East Java for the smelters development. On Thursday Governor of Papua Lukas Enembe met President Joko Widodo telling his refusal over the company's plan.
"I accompany Papuan regents to meet the President and we agree to refuse smelter development in Gresik" Lukas said. READ MORE
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.