The site manager witness admitted the fact that PT Newmont's tailing has caused sea pollution
In the last hearing (6/09/07) of Walhi's claim toward PT Newmont Minahasa Raya, ESDM Department and KLH also as defendant --- Newmont Minahasa Raya has proposed three witnesses, two of them are local people and the other one is a Newmont employee. The first witness was Robert (54). After collecting enough money by going and try to make a living in Irian Jaya and Kalimantan, this man from Bitung has decided to stay in Teluk Buyat since 1998. With those money he could have two boats and employed local people to operate the boats. When the plaintiff's lawyer asked him whether he knew about the migration of Teluk Buyat people to Duminanga, he answered that he did know and according to him it happened because the community were tantalized by the people from non-governmental organization. The court audience were shocked when the court revealed the fact that the witness has once performed as liquor seller, some kind of the cheap ones, and has to be dealing with police department for that. Robert is the head of Teluk Buyat village. When he was asked about who was the one who appointed him to be the head of the village, he answered that it was based on the subdistrict head's decision. This was different from the one given by Newmont's second witness, H. Dahlan, who was also positioned as the head of the village until year 2007. He said that he was the one who appointed Robert. Luhut Pangaribuan asked the witness whether have the local communities around Buyat been angry for the fact that the fish he sold were contaminated and spreading diseases. Robert said he was unaware of it. However in the incident in 2004, the fish were not in demand and almost no one would bought them because of the lively news regarding the polution in Teluk Buyat. Robert explained that a fishing competition was once held in 2004 and he himself acted as the chief of the committee. The reason behind it was because he felt the need to prove that the fish in Teluk Buyat were not at all reduced. This statement was not contradictive with Jimmy Bawole's statement, a man who lived there and proposed by Walhi to be a witness in the previous hearing, that with only one fish, Jimmy has been appointed as the first winner. Whereas, Jimmy said that the competition was held from early in the morning to daylight or for around 6 hours. The different information was about the size of the fish. He caught a shark fish. Interviewed in the interval of the previous hearing, DR. Rignolda Jamaludin explained that the fish has no economical value for the local communities. Robert also said that he and his group has received boats from Newmont. The second witness proposed by Newmont was H. Dahlan. He never went to the sea anymore since he was appointed as the head of the village in 1996. When he was asked about one condition when local people were sick, he explained that there was one person who suffered lump and was brought to Jakarta. He said that his son owned a bussines related with Newmont Minahasa Raya, and that is a bussines of transportation for employee. The third witness was David Sompie, an employee of Newmont. WALHI's attorney has proposed their objection regarding the witness for the fact that he worked for Newmont Minahasa Raya up until this very day. David explained that the tailing of gold mining distributed to Teluk Buyat could kill the organism in the bottom of the waters. The organism in the bottom would be killed for the fact that they were piled up by tailing materials. The document of NMR's Environmental Impact Analysis has stated the possibility of sea biota damages, said David. When it was stated by the plaintif's attorney that several amount of heavy metal of the tailing by Newmont MNR have exceed the standard testing material, he explained that it was happened in daily period, not monthly period. The plaintif's attorney, has also asked whether Newmont MHR has ever performed toxicity test. David said that NMR has only performed TCLP (Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure), and that is identification process of tailing waste and whether the amount of heavy metal in the relevant waste was still below the limit determined by the government. However, NMR has never performed biological toxicity test (bioassay). The test was a monitoring tool of human being that was capable in seeing the response from the organism toward various concentration or dose of waste. Burned Down the Diploma and Stock Certificate, An Appreciation Protest for the CEO of Newmont. Activists of environmental and human rights organizations performed a protest in front of the Marriot Hotel building in Denver on August 30th 2007. The reason was that the fact that Denver University gave CEO of Newmont Mining Company, Wayne Murdy, an award in human rights issue that very day. The annual award was called Bridge Builder Award, awarded to those who "stood out in building relationship between Colorado and the world, exceeding national boundaries". Governor Bill Ritter from Democrat Party attended the event and to the audience he said that Newmont was a "good corporate citizen." As distributed by Indymedia USA, the compliment was not a surprised for the fact that Newmont has just given a $260,000 donation to the National Convention of Democrat Party that would be hold next year in Denver. The communities demand to reveal the untruth behind the award given. They said that Murdy was more qualified in receiving award of building a relationship based on tyranny toward human rights and environment. Denver University alumni and Newmont stock holder were also present among the demonstrators. Awon Atuire, representative of Association of Wassa Communities Who Suffered Impact from Mining Activities, from Ghana, was also present to tell stories about Newmont practices in his country that migrated 1,000 farmers. The activists said that Carrie Dann from western Shoshone was the perfect person to receive an award of "International Bridge Builder". Dann stated that, "Newmont has done nothing in handling the impact of their activities on the violation of human rights toward the western Shoshone communities." The Dean of International Studies in Denver University has refused to cancel the award regardless the fact that it gained so many protest from the majority of people in its university and from the communities who suffered direct impact of Newmont gold mining company activities. The activists were representing non profit organizations in Colorado. Oxfam USA, Amnesty International and World Resources Institute have documented people's claim on Newmont for their activities in poluting the drinking water, river and the sea with their dangerous and poisoned waste like cyanide, mercury and arsen; cooperating with military forces and police department in intimidating and arresting community activists; and expropriate the areas and living cources of the fishermen and farmers. In last April, Newmont stock holders issued a resolution demanding an investigation on company's relationship with communities who suffered impacts of the mining activities. The result will be reported in the stock holders meeting in 2008. Here are numbers of statement from the activists, related to the given award: "This award would not be forgiven by thousand of people who have lost their soul, life and natural resources by Newmont mining activities," Paula Palmer said, executive director of Global Response Boulder. "What was the reason behind the fact that Denver University given the award to a company while the company's stock holders itself have agreed to perform an investigation on the negative impacts to human rights and environment from their activities?" kara Martinez, alumni of International Studies, Denver Universities. The event were also attended by Indian American Colorado Movement, Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Global Response, Denver Justice and Peace Committee, the Stop Newmont Coalition and Colorado University Network of Indigeneous Proponent. Compiled from: http://indymedia.us/en/2007/09/27272.shtml http://nativeunity.blogspot.com/ Newmont has make a firm stand while a number of research and witnesses have stated that Teluk Buyat is positively polluted In the hearing of WALHI's claim toward Newmont (9/08/07), Luhut Pangaribuan, acted as Newmont Minahasa Raya attorney, proposed for the judges could visit Teluk Buyat, South Sulawesi, to make sure that there was no pollution to the environment. WALHI's attorney said that people who go to the location to prove pollution should be the ones with experties, for example the skill to dive, and the fact that Newmont Minahasa Raya has stopped their activities since 2004, has made it impossible for us to detect the mercury steam pollution by performing air sampling or chimney monitoring. Beside the ability to monitor the lowering of environment's quality, of course we can not perform the motinitoring process in a short period. >From a discussion with Armin, a man who once worked for Newmont Minahasa Raya for 6 years, revealed a fact that monitoring activities should be perform in a long period of time. He once worked in several division so that he could observed the activities of the gold mining company. Armin said that the manufacturing proses of the ore should be stopped when the amount of mercury and cyanide were high, however the fact was it still has to wait for the laboratorium process. Although the laboratorium result stated that the amount of mercury and cyanide in the ore were high, they still have to report it again to issue a decision whether to continue or stop the manufacturing process of the ore. Another issue stated by Armin was that the fact that ore grinding process was also produce mercury. The dust from grinding process would make their way out through the chimney. The dust that possibly contained mercury could not be monitored by the grinding division. That could only be seen from the crasher division, that further would report to the grinding officers about the smoke and stop the process. Armin said that he knew that condition when he was transferred from the grinding division to the crasher division. However, there was still late responses, and if it took place at night time, they could not monitor the dust that went out from the chimney. There were Armin's statement when in Jakarta, in the condition of breathing problem and shaking after performing a surgery. The impact's accumulation of various heavy metal that could only be seen after a period of time, could be detected from the decrease of people's health di Buyat Village and the number of death on productive age; the number has increase after the closing of Newmont Minahasa Raya. The result of consolidation team, whose members are academics, Newmont Minahasa Raya and environmental organizations, found by the government after the news regarding pollution in Teluk Buyat, has concluded that Teluk Buyat is positively polluted by the activities of Newmont Minahasa Raya mining activities (Walhi). The news from hearing of WALHI's claim toward Newmont: WITNESSES: (Ex) Liquor Seller, The Son has Bussines Interest with Newmont and Newmont Employee. In the last hearing (6/09/07) of Walhi's claim toward PT Newmont Minahasa Raya, ESDM Department and KLH also as defendant --- Newmont Minahasa Raya has proposed three witnesses, two of them are local people and the other one is a Newmont employee. The first witness was Robert (54). After collecting enough money by going and try to make a living in Irian Jaya and Kalimantan, this man from Bitung has decided to stay in Teluk Buyat since 1998. With those money he could have two boats and employed local people to operate the boats. When the plaintiff's lawyer asked him whether he knew about the migration of Teluk Buyat people to Duminanga, he answered that he did know and according to him it happened because the community were tantalized by the people from non-governmental organization. The court audience were shocked when the court revealed the fact that the witness has once performed as liquor seller, some kind of the cheap ones, and has to be dealing with police department for that. Robert is the head of Teluk Buyat village. When he was asked about who was the one who appointed him to be the head of the village, he answered that it was based on the subdistrict head's decision. This was different from the one given by Newmont's second witness, H. Dahlan, who was also positioned as the head of the village until year 2007. He said that he was the one who appointed Robert. Luhut Pangaribuan asked the witness whether have the local communities around Buyat been angry for the fact that the fish he sold were contaminated and spreading diseases. Robert said he was unaware of it. However in the incident in 2004, the fish were not in demand and almost no one would bought them because of the lively news regarding the polution in Teluk Buyat. Robert explained that a fishing competition was once held in 2004 and he himself acted as the chief of the committee. The reason behind it was because he felt the need to prove that the fish in Teluk Buyat were not at all reduced. This statement was not contradictive with Jimmy Bawole's statement, a man who lived there and proposed by Walhi to be a witness in the previous hearing, that with only one fish, Jimmy has been appointed as the first winner. Whereas, Jimmy said that the competition was held from early in the morning to daylight or for around 6 hours. The different information was about the size of the fish. He caught a shark fish. Interviewed in the interval of the previous hearing, DR. Rignolda Jamaludin explained that the fish has no economical value for the local communities. Robert also said that he and his group has received boats from Newmont. The second witness proposed by Newmont was H. Dahlan. He never went to the sea anymore since he was appointed as the head of the village in 1996. When he was asked about one condition when local people were sick, he explained that there was one person who suffered lump and was brought to Jakarta. He said that his son owned a bussines related with Newmont Minahasa Raya, and that is a bussines of transportation for employee. The third witness was David Sompie, an employee of Newmont. WALHI's attorney has proposed their objection regarding the witness for the fact that he worked for Newmont Minahasa Raya up until this very day. David explained that the tailing of gold mining distributed to Teluk Buyat could kill the organism in the bottom of the waters. The organism in the bottom would be killed for the fact that they were piled up by tailing materials. The document of NMR's Environmental Impact Analysis has stated the possibility of sea biota damages, said David. When it was stated by the plaintif's attorney that several amount of heavy metal of the tailing by Newmont MNR have exceed the standard testing materials, he explained that it was happened in daily period, not monthly period. The plaintif's attorney, has also asked whether Newmont MHR has ever performed toxicity test. David said that NMR has only performed TCLP (Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure), and that is identification process of tailing waste and whether amount of heavy metal in the relevant waste was still below the limit determined by the government. However, NMR has never performed biological toxicity test (bioassay). The test was a monitoring tool of human being that was capable in seeing the response from the organism toward various concentration or dose of waste. More information can be read in the WALHI's website: www.eng.walhi.or.id <http://www.eng.walhi.or.id/>
