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. . [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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