Excerpted Complaint filed April 29, 1996, in US District Court, Eastern District for Louisiana Civil Action 96-1476 Tom Beanal et al v. Freeport McMoran, suit ultimately dismissed

[NB– The Freeport-McMoran Gold mine in Irian Jaya (now Papua) is the largest single foreign investment project in Indonesia, and has on occasion attracted criticism related to mine operations as in the case of alleged environmental violations linked to claims of violations of indigenous rights. The basic argument is that if the environment is degraded, the culture and people living traditionally in that environment go too. Two things to note, first that Freeport has always claimed that it satisfies all applicable Indonesian domestic environmental law regulation, and second to ask yourself whether there is customary law, general principles or whatever source of international law to give technical substance to the claim of environmental violations and/or cultural genocide. Is the Complaint’s underlying claim about what the law is (legally cognizable), or is it just what the parties filing the suit would like the law to be? Otherwise, ask yourself whether the person who drafted the complaint includes the cultural genocide count to oppose damage to the environment, or vice-versa? The Alien Torts Claim Act is a federal statute allowing suit in US federal courts on the basis of a violation of international law. Concerning the ATCA generally, see Alien Torts Claim Act:  United States 1789 (Britannica).

ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS

24.

The plaintiffs allege that the mining operations conducted by defendant corporations referred to herein as the Grasberg mining operation resulted in the destruction of the indigenous peoples’ natural waterways within the region; the deforestation of rain forest and the contamination of the region’s surface and ground water through ore leachate. Said violations of international environmental law are tantamount to acts of eco-terrorism.

25.

The Grasberg mining operation deposits in the local waterways approximately 120,000 metric tons of tailings which contain trace amounts of metals and are the waste product of the open pit mining operation of defendant corporations at Grasberg.

26.

The environmental ramifications of the tailings released into the waterways of the plaintiff’s natural living area include toxicity, volume and mass which have resulted in the disruption of the nature waterways, the pollution of natural waterways, the overflow and alteration of the natural waterways leading to the deforestation of the region.

27.

The FREEPORT mining concession has discharged tailings resulting in massive deposition of tailings of Ajkwa River and the sheet flow of tailings which has substantially destroyed a significant area of the low land rainforest between the Ajkwa River and the Minajeri River. The destruction of said areas has resulted and caused a major environmental, health and safety hazard within Irian Jaya.

28.

Additional problems resulting from the operation of the FREEPORT mining concession include acid mine drainage from the tailings, the concentration, mobilization and bio availability of non-toxic and toxic materials in the tailings, the degradation of surface and ground water quality, increased sedimentation, sheeting and other adverse affects that have been caused by the higher percentage of coarser grain tailings, and the mismanagement of solid and hazardous waste at the site.

29.

The FREEPORT mining concession additionally has caused the hollowing of several mountains which are beautiful, natural resources of the glacial mountain range in the region, spontaneous re-routing of major rivers, the death of a large track of the sago Forest and the increase in levels of toxic and non-toxic materials and metals within the river systems of the area.

30.

Other major rivers affected by the dumping of the tailings into the rivers of the indigenous peoples’ region are the Aghawagon River and the Otomona River equally affected by the mismanagement of the tailing released by the defendant corporations.

31.

As a result of the lack of a proper tailings management program by defendant corporations, areas as large as 50 square kilometers of fresh water swamp forest have been transformed into a denuded tailings deposit area.

32.

The contamination of the waterways by the enormous tonnage of tailings dumped by the defendant corporations prevents sunlight penetration into the water, prevention of oxygen dilution and is a practice which is unacceptable anywhere on this planet.

33.

The plaintiffs allege that acid mine drainage from the Grasberg ore zone is an equally significant international environmental violation caused by the defendant corporations and is caused by chemical and biological oxidation of sulfides and excavation of sulfide containing waste materials during mining which exposes previously unweathered rock to oxygen thereby greatly accelerating the oxidative process.

34.

One of the by products of sulfide oxidation is sulfuric acid which in turn can dissolve residual metals and other metals such as arsenic in the mine waste to produce an extremely toxic leachate.

35.

Plaintiffs allege that defendant corporations have failed to engage in adequate acid mine drainage management programs and have failed to develop a comprehensive mining and waste handling plan to ensure prevention of acid generation from waste rock tailings, open pits and underground work areas.

36.

The Grasberg mining operation within the FREEPORT concession already exhibits visual evidence of acid mine draining which is the result of sulfide oxidation within its property.

37.

The plaintiffs allege that due to the mismanagement of the defendant corporations that toxic leachates from the open pits of the Grasberg mining operation have been widely disbursed into the round water and surface waterways within the FREEPORT concession.

38.

Defendant corporations mining operations in Irian Jaya violate every acceptable international norm and has and will result in the continued destruction of the beautiful valleys, glacial mountain ranges and the rain forests of the region.

39.

The corporations mining operations disrupted the delicate ecosystem balance between the sea, the beaches, the swamp, the rain forest and the alpine areas within the FREEPORT mining concession.

40.

Plaintiffs specifically allege that the defendant corporations have failed to engage in a zero waste policy, an acceptable enclosed waste management system, have failed to maximize environmental rehabilitation, have failed to engage in an appropriate acid leachate control policy, have failed to adequately monitor the destruction of the natural resources of Irian Jaya and have disregarded and breached its international duty to protect one of the last great natural rain forests and alpine areas in the world.

CULTURAL GENOCIDE

41.

The plaintiffs specifically reallege each and every paragraph of the foregoing Complaint as if repeated herein.

42.

The plaintiffs allege that the human rights violations and the eco-terrorism engaged in by defendant corporations have destroyed the rights and culture of the Amungme and other Indigenous tribal people.

43.

Since defendant corporations have commenced their operations, many of the Amungme people have displaced and relocated to areas in the lowlands away from their cultural heritage of highland living.

44.

Other Indigenous tribal people, including but not limited to Komora Tribe, have met the same fate.

45.

The egregious human rights and environmental violations, which have terrorized the tribal communities of the Amungme and other Indigenous Tribal people, destroyed their natural habitats and caused dislocation of the populations have resulted in the purposeful, deliberate, contrived and planned demise of a culture of indigenous people whose rights were never considered, whose heritage and culture were disregarded and the result of which is ultimately to lead to the cultural demise of an unique pristine heritage which is socially, culturally and anthropologically irreplaceable.

Copyright 2020–21 © David Linnan.