Jim Bob's Indonesian misadventure: a U.S. mining company clashes with indigenous peoples - Freeport-McMoRan CEO James Robert Moffett

Progressive, The, June, 1996 by Eyal Press

On March 10, the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya erupted in a series of riots aimed at halting the operations of Freeport-McMoRan, a New Orleans-based mining company that runs the world's largest gold mine and third-largest copper mine on the western half of the island of New Guinea.

The three-day rebellion began after a vehicle driven by a Freeport employee accidentally struck a local tribesman, Wilenus Kogoya. Rumors spread that the man had been killed, whereupon hundreds of indigenous people armed with sticks, spears, and knives began attacking Freeport facilities, ransacking buildings, breaking windows, damaging an environmental lab and scores of company offices and homes. They eventually forced the temporary closure of both the mine in Tembagapura, and the local airport in neighboring Timika, where rioters rushed to meet the incoming plane of Freeport CEO James Robert ("Jim Bob") Moffett.

"We fight against Jim Bob Moffett, Freeport, and the government," read a statement from local people connected to the protesters. "We fight because our rights are not recognized, our resources are extracted and destroyed while our lives are taken." A spokesperson for the Amungme, Komoro, Dani, and Moni tribes of the region addressed the Freeport CEO directly: "You and your workers live in luxury on our property. We, who own the rights to the property, sleep on rubbish. Therefore, from today, we don't give you permission for this company, and close it."

On March 14, as the rioting calmed, indigenous leaders met with Moffett. Mama Yosepha, a woman who was forced to sit inside a Freeport shipping container by Indonesian troops last year, said, "My son Moffett, in the past I put you inside my noken [a bag used by Amungme women to carry babies and piglets]. I took you with me wherever I went, but I did not realize that you actually suck my blood until it's all drained, and I remain only in bones without flesh. Now, I pick you out of my noken and will throw you far away"--at which point she hurled her noken to the floor. Moments later, she and others presented Moffett with a list of demands, calling for more jobs for local people, a right to control what happens on their land, and the dismantling of Freeport's security force, which is embroiled in allegations of human-rights abuse.

Situated on the eastern fringe of the vast Indonesian archipelago that stretches across much of Southeast Asia, Irian Jaya seems as far removed as possible from the epicenter of global politics and commerce. But in this day and age, no place is remote enough. Cursed with an abundance of timber, copper, and other natural resources, Irian Jaya has become a magnet for companies like Freeport, which extract the riches while trampling on the rights of native peoples.

Irian Jaya is by no means unique. Indigenous people of disparate regions are fighting an enemy of common form. The Amungme, Komoro, and other native tribes in Irian Jaya--like the Ogoni people struggling against Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria; the Quichua and Hourani confronting Texaco in Ecuador; the Zapatistas in Chiapas--are at the front lines of a battle between indigenous people and transnational corporations. It is a battle over environmental justice, human rights, the preservation of indigenous culture, the right to control development, and the need for a more equitable distribution of wealth--fundamental issues that Western corporations have long assumed could go ignored within the friendly confines of Third World dictatorships.

In this respect, it's hard to rival Indonesia, which granted Freeport the formal right to exploit Irian Jaya's mineral resources in 1967. This was two years before Indonesia formally declared the region its twenty-sixth province, following an Act of Free Choice in which 1,025 representatives preselected by the Indonesian government were allowed to "choose" Indonesian rule on behalf of 800,000 people. Indonesia has since become the glittering star in Southeast Asia's market economy, luring U.S. corporations with cheap labor, abundant resources, and a government that rules in capital's favor with an iron fist.

Jim Bob Moffett refers to General Suharto as a "compassionate man"--this of an autocrat who slaughtered some 500,000 people upon coming to power in 1965, and has since killed 200,000 during the illegal occupation of East Timor. Suharto obliges Moffett by keeping a heavy troop presence near the Freeport mine. For Jakarta, this "vital national project" generated $380 million in revenue last year alone, and rests atop reserves worth an estimated $60 billion.

Freeport says the Indonesian military in Irian Jaya "serves the role that the police would serve in a more developed area."

The latest State Department annual Report on Human Rights, however, notes that this "police" force routinely subjects civilians to "kicking with heavy boots; beating with fists, sticks, stones, and rifle butts; starvation; shackling thumbs, arms, and legs; taping eyes shut; stamping on hands; and forcing victims to stand for prolonged periods while bearing heavy weights."