The html version of Bishop Munninghoff's report was obtained from ACFOA by fax and then typed in locally in Austin. For a copy of this report received later by email from AFCOA, see original.

There are rumors that Freeport-McMoRan claimed at a press conference in Austin on November, 14, 1995 that the Bishop's report was doctored, but exactly what the alleged doctoring was has not yet been made known to us. Furthermore, we doubt that Freeport is ever likely to attempt to make a claim of doctoring explicit in view of the report from Steven Feld below.

In response to these rumors, Bishop Munninghoff said in the Austin American-Statesman, November 19, 1995, p. 14, "he had not completed his review of the English-language version sent by the Austin diocese but that it is possible some passages were added by others. The original report was written in Indonesian. 'I think most of it is my report, he said.'"

The foregoing notes were made by Robert S. Boyer

The following remarks were provided by Steven Feld on December 8, 1995.

This is in response to the rumors that the document circulated by ACFOA on August 30 1995 and attributed to Bishop Munninghoff of Jayapura is either false, tampered with, or somehow not the Bishop's own report.

On Nov 19 Ralph Haurwitz's AAS (Austin American-Statesman) article contains a quote from the Bishop to the effect that although he had not fully reviewed the English translation, he felt it was "mostly" his report.

When I read this I called Pat Walsh, director of ACFOA's human rights office in Melbourne and asked him about how the translation and ACFOA edition was produced. He told me that the Bishop's report was circulated in Indonesian to the Catholic Church in Indonesia. The Church's peace and justice committee passed it to Indonesian environmental human rights NGOs. This is when a rough English translation was produced and sent to ACFOA.

ACFOA had the entire document retranslated and checked for accuracy. Walsh said there were some obvious typos -- like numbers in a military batallion out of order -- that he corrected. He added an executive summary. Unfortunately, he did not indicate that this contribution was from ACFOA. He also added a cover letter from 5 Indonesian NGOs. One of these groups, WALHI, was suing Freeport and had been under attack from Freeport over accusations about environmental degradation. Again, unfortunately, it was not indicated that the NGO statement did not originate from consultation with the Bishop. To the body of the report provided by the Bishop he only added subheadings now and again for clarity. Still, it was not indicated -- and should have been -- that these were additions by ACFOA.

The above explains (a) the discrepancy between the Indonesian original and the English edition, (b) why Freeport says groups hostile to them managed to get their names and opinions in the report, and (c) why the Bishop said it was "mostly" his report.

On December 7 1995 I met with Bishop John McCarthy of the Diocese of Austin. He told me that 5 weeks after sending the English edition to Bishop Munninghoff with a request for verification of its authenticity, he received a fax from Munninghoff saying that the English edition was indeed an accurate translation, but that the two initial items, namely the executive summary-overview, and the NGO statement, were written by others and not previously seen by him.

In response to Freeport's publicity claims that the Bishop's report somehow clears the company of accountability, it should be noted that the Bishop did not set out in anyway to investigate or report on Freeport. He collected first hand accounts. Some of them speak about the use of Freeport containers as torture cells and the involvement of Freeport vehicles and infrastructure in murder, torture, detainment, harassment, and disappearance. Freeport's insinuation that the Bishop has in no way implicated them as complicit or morally responsible is counter indicated by at least three quotations from the Bishop in the Indonesian press, the most significant and recent of which is the following, reprinted in the November 1995 edition of Down to Earth (newsletter of Intnl campaign for Ecological Justice in Indonesia), here reproduced with the contexting paragraph:

"Bishop Munninghoff, if not willing to point the finger directly at Freeport for the abuses he documents, does at least admit that the company is a root cause of unrest:"

'There is indeed a link between this case and Freeport. As most people probably know, the region of Timika is very rich...but what do we get? In their own country, they are impoverished. As they see it, these riches are being stolen from their land, and this has been going on for decades. Not to speak of the pollution and the way in which their land was taken from them in a way that many of them consider as being unacceptable' (Forum Keadilan 11-9-95)

In recent days the Bishop was obviously pressed by Indonesian authorities and Freeport to simply say that his report is identical to the one by the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission [which is only available in 3 page summary, thus making the first person accounts in the Bishop's report most important].

For more on this see "Bishop exposes atrocities in Timika", TAPOL Bulletin # 131, October 1995 or the larger report "Bishop's report documents massacre, torture..." in Down to Earth # 27, November 1995.

Steven Feld

The following report nails down the authenticity question once and for all -- rsb.

Indonesian rights dispute turns on chilling report, Austin American-Statesman, December 10, 1995, p. A1. "Munninghoff said in a telephone interview that he is now satisfied that the English language report 'is an exact translation from my report in the Indonesian language' except for the executive summary added by human-rights activists."