JAKARTA (AFP)--Indonesia's military denied Tuesday a disclosure
by U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX)
that the company pays for soldiers to guard a massive gold and
copper mine in the Papua region.
The denial came after Freeport told shareholders it had paid
support costs for the military guarding the Grasberg mine in the
remote eastern province, where soldiers are regularly accused of
human rights abuses.
The payments have continued despite efforts by the Indonesian
government to stop the military from acting as paid protection for
private interests. The company says it is doing nothing
illegal.
Military spokesman Sagom Tamboen said while an unspecified
number of soldiers indirectly received allowances from Freeport for
providing security at the mine, they were there "on the request of
police."
Freeport's allowance payments "cannot be said to be given to the
TNI (Indonesian military)," Tamboen said.
"Actually it is given to the police and the police give it to
the TNI because the TNI are assisting the police."
He added: "My explanation is that the laws and regulations in
Indonesia do not allow the military to be a security force at vital
national assets anymore. That duty has been diverted to the
national police."
However, a spokesman for Arizona-based Freeport has said the
company paid less than $1.6 million to the police and military last
year to provide a "monthly allowance" for personnel at and around
Grasberg.
That is part of $8 million Freeport paid in broader "support
costs" for 1,850 police and soldiers protecting the site last year,
according to a company report filed with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Tamboen said he was seeking clarification from Freeport on the
nature of its payments.
Indonesian soldiers have been accused of rights abuses as they
seek to snuff out support for a low-level separatist insurgency in
the resource-rich but impoverished region.
A 2007 ministerial decree, the latest of a number of legal
measures, set a six-month deadline for the military to give up
responsibility for security at "vital national assets," of which
Graberg is one, to the police.