Information about the controversy surrounding the naming of the Jim Bob Moffett Molecular Biology Building at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), named after the chairman of Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold.

Since 1995, when the debate over the Jim Bob Moffett building surfaced at UT, much of the debate has focused over whether or not Freeport Copper & Gold funded the Indonesian military and whether or not the company's practices resulted in mass environmental degradation. Although documents show the best in-depth evidence, articles frequently came out describing Freeport's Indonesian affairs, as well as UT's role.

News on Freeport and UT

• Freeport McMoRan: UT's support for a corporate bandit. Compiled by Liz Henry. Polemicist. September 1990; pages 10-11; Volume 2, No. 1. "The institutional ties between President Cunningham and private enterprise stand as a case study in an administrator serving the needs of outside constituencies at the expense of education and the public interest. The corporate background and priorities of our UT administrators surface over and over. So we need to examine these corporate connections and ponder their implications for our University."
• The UT-Freeport Connection: How corporations pervert academic freedom: a case study. By Tom Philpott and Scott Henson. Polemicist. July 1990; pages 3, 11; Volume 1, No. 7. "In the course of the campaign against the Barton Creek development, Freeport McMoRan's environmental record came under fire. Not only is Freeport the number one dumper of toxic chemicals into the nation's waterways, but for 16 years its copper mining operations in Indonesia have dumped raw mine tailings into a local river system. UT geologists last summer began a 10 year study of ore bodies in Indonesia, funded by Freeport and beginning in an area covered by Freeport's mining contract with the Indonesian government. The project, headed by Natural Sciences Dean Robert Boyer, brings up fundamental questions concerning corporate-sponsored research and academic freedom."
• Written in Stone: UT's Jim Bob Moffett and Freeport-McMoRan ride a new wave of allegations of business as usual: exploitation, cronyism, and environmental devastation. By Robert Bryce. September 30, 2005. Austin Chronicle. The Chronicle celebrates 10 years of talking about Jim Bob Moffett, his building at UT-Austin, the Indonesian military, and cronyism with an in-depth article and great resources.
• PTFI Needs to Empower the Irian Jaya People. Kompas, Page 19 Tuesday, April 3, 2001. Freeport's indifferent attitude towards the rights of the Irian Jaya population is partly to blame for the lengthy conflicts in the region. The people's demand for independence and the rejection of special autonomy are clear manifestations of people's dissatisfaction about the company's attitude.
• Still Tone Deaf. Texas Observer. June 25, 1999. Filed under "Political Intelligence": "The early epitaphs are not flattering. One day after U.T. Chancellor William Cunningham announced that he will leave his position in August of next year, the university's student newspaper, the Daily Texan, editorialized, 'Whatever accomplishments Cunningham may list after his name, the Freeport-McMoRan debacle deserves just as prominent a place in the University's history books.'"
• Bye-Bye Dollar Bill. Texas Observer. September 17, 1999. Filed under "Political Intelligence": "Cunningham's memory is also highly selective. He took the opportunity of a September 2 interview with the student newspaper, The Daily Texan, to rewrite history and lash out at his critics and those of his good friend Jim Bob Moffett, C.E.O. of Freeport-McMoRan. As Cunningham tells it, if it hadn't been for one recalcitrant professor, Steven Feld (a world-renowned anthropologist, musicologist, and MacArthur fellow who has since moved on to friendlier climes), nobody would have noticed Freeport's notorious Grasberg Mine in Irian Jaya, nor the company's institutional disregard of human rights and indifference to the environmental effects of its mine operations."
• He Can Run, But He Can't Hide: He May Never Face an International Tribunal, but Henry Kissinger Feels the Heat. Texas Observer. August 3, 2001. "Hitchens is among the many who believe Kissinger profited from his diplomatic assistance to Indonesia's old establishment, which opened the way for James Moffett's Freeport MacMoRan to control one of the world's largest gold-and-copper mining operations. 'In 1989,' writes Hitchens, 'Freeport MacMoRan paid Kissinger Associates a retainer of $200,000 and fees of $600,000, not to mention a promise of a two-percent commission on future earnings.' Kissinger also became a well-paid member of its board of directors. In 1991 Kissinger helped Moffett close 'a deal for a thirty-year license to continue exploiting' the Indonesian mining operation."

Resources

Best background: The West Papua Kit, Australian West Papua Association. An excellent and extensive introduction to the history of trouble in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, which is also known as West Papua. Here is an Internet version of a thirty page booklet, placed on-line by UT professor Alan Cline. In addition to prose, there are many pictures and maps. Especially relevant to the Freeport/Moffett issues is the page on miningng.

Best introduction to the issues: Spinning Gold, Robert Bryce, Mother Jones, September-October, 1996. "By keeping journalists away from its Indonesian mine--which contains gold, silver, and copper valued at $50 billion--New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan has managed to put its spin on environmental and human rights abuses near the mine." Freeport replies, Mother Jones, November-December, 1996.

Tailings from the Grasburg mine pour into a tributary of the Ajkwa River (43k jpeg version of the photo). One of the earliest and best articles about the controversy, from the Texas Observer November 17, 1995, p. 9.

"Tribal leaders and environmentalists claim the mine in the rugged mountains is the source of tons of toxic wastes that are killing portions of a river and acres of rain forest. Many of the tribes also complain that their land has been taken without compensation by the Indonesian government, and that human rights activists have been abused and some even murdered by the Indonesian military." Gold and blood in the wilderness, CNN February 21, 1996.

"Freeport's Grasberg mine in the remote and rugged province is 'arguably the most valuable single mineral discovery ever made,' (Freeport vice-president) Murphy told Reuters in outlining current exploration work." Reuter, October 9, 1996.

Probably everyone in Austin has something from the Freeport copper mine in their house. The mine is now producing about 8% of the world's copper." UT Geological Sciences Department chairman Mark Cloos, Oct. 6, 1996.

News on Indonesian Violence and Freeport McMoRan's role

• US to resume military ties with Indonesia. Green Left Weekly. March 2, 2005. "ELSHAM says that the TNI's [the Indonesian military] most probable motive was to ensure continued 'security payments' from Freeport. According to a communication by Freeport with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company paid the TNI US$5.6 million in 2002. ELSHAM says Freeport made these payments in the form of direct monthly transfers into the account of the West Papua military commander. Payments were discontinued a month before the attack. These allegations are not new. In 1991, Emmy Hafild, from the Indonesian environmental NGO Walhi, claimed that the local military commander boasted to her that Freeport directly supported military operations and helped pay military salaries."
• Freeport's Relationship with the Indonesian Militaryry. Solidarity in South Pacific. January 2005. "Freeport and its functionaries have actively cultivated an extremely close working relationship with the ABRI over the last thirty years, benefiting greatly from the protection it has provided. In 2002 Freeport first began publicly disclosing how much money they paid to the military each year. According to its 2003 SEC annual report they paid $5.9 million in 2003, $5.6 million in 2002 and $4.7 million in 2001. While not admitting how much it has paid each year since its mining operations began, they did admit in their 2002 SEC report that over time they have 'constructed and provided infrastructure for housing, offices and related facilities at a cost of approximately $35 million.'"
• TAPOL Bulletin Online. TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, April 2001. "... contains full text articles on human rights, justice, and news and analysis of events in Central Kalimantan, Aceh, West Papua and East Timor."
• UK students demonstrate outside of Freeport offices in London in solidarity with Papuan students starting a hunger strike in protest of the Freeport mine. Indymedia UK. October 24, 2003.
• David Atlee Phillips, Clay Shaw and Freeport Sulphur. By Lisa Pease. (Probe, March-April, 1996). "Could an American-based multinational corporation such as Freeport Sulphur, now Freeport McMoRan, have been involved, however peripherally, in anti-Castro activities in the sixties? Could Freeport have provided cover to employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, employees such as David Atlee Phillips? Could we have imagined there would be a company connecting both Phillips and Clay Shaw, the man Jim Garrison charged with being part of the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy?""
• JFK, Indonesia, CIA & Freeport Sulphur. By Lisa Pease. (Probe, date unknown). "In 1980, Freeport merged with McMoRan-an oil exploration and development company headed by James "Jim Bob" Moffett. The two become one, and Moffett (the "Mo" in McMoRan) eventually became President of Freeport McMoRan. In 1995, Freeport McMoRan managed to spin off it's Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. subsidiary into a separate entity ... Freeport didn't sit still over this cancellation. Kissinger executed a major lobbying effort (for which he is paid $400,000 a year), meeting with officials at the State Department and working the halls of Capitol Hill. Sources close to the matter, according to Robert Bryce in a recent issue of the Texas Observer, say Freeport hired former CIA director James Woolsey in the fight against OPIC.
• Indonesia bans observers - but Downer expects fair trials for rebels. Sydney Morning Herald, February 16, 2000. Hope springs eternal from Downer's breast.
• Indonesia refuses to let observers into West Papua (read: Indonesia once again drops below the cut-off point for civilized life). 15 Feb 2001. This is a transcript of PM broadcast at 1800 AEST on local radio. Indonesia refuses to let observers into West Papua PM - Thursday, February 15, 2001 6:48 COMPERE: Indonesia has refused to let two senior Australian observers into West Papua to watch the trials there of a number of independent activists. Justice Elizabeth Evatt, former Chief Justice of the Family Court and just retired from the United Nations Human Rights Committee, had applied, with a colleague Elizabeth Biok, to go in as representatives of the International Commission of Jurists. Their visa applications have been refused on the grounds that the trials are an internal Indonesian matter only.
• 5 Killed in Indonesia's Irian Jaya. Associated Press (AP), February 4, 2001.
• Hundreds of Christians, including children and pregnant women, have been forcibly circumcised as part of a campaign by extremists to spread Islam through Indonesia's war-ravaged Maluku Islands. The Age, January 26, 2001.
• Irian Jayan rebels hold 18 hostages, after seizing 7 negotiators. AFP, January 19, 2001.
• Appalling violence with no mercy in jail cells of Irian Jaya. Oswald Iten, 9 January, 2001, Sydney Morning Herald.
• A Pact Against Oil Company Abuses. Editorial, New York Times, December 28, 2000. "In the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya in the mid-1990's, military men hired as guards at Freeport-McMoRan's Grasberg gold and copper mine were accused of killing civilians."
• Police declare war after deadly attack. Lindsay Murdoch, Sydney Morning Herald, December 8, 2000. "Observers fear that West Papua has plunged into a cycle of violence that may threaten the Freeport copper and gold mine, Jakarta's biggest taxpayer."
• Indonesian police detain Papuan priest, other leaders. Kyodo, December 5, 2000. "Police detained a priest and four other local leaders on suspicion of separatist activities in Indonesia's easternmost province Papua, the state-run news agency Antara reported Tuesday."
• Spears and Guns. Editorial, Sydney Morning Herald. "The shooting of at least nine independence supporters at the weekend in Indonesia's remote province of Irian Jaya appears to signal a new, more violent phase in a protracted conflict. The sight of well-armed soldiers facing crowds of indigenous tribesmen, people clad in penis gourds and clutching hand-made spears, will heighten concerns over human rights abuses by Indonesian soldiers. For Canberra, the deteriorating situation in Irian Jaya - known as West Papua - adds another troubling element to a difficult bilateral relationship. When three senior Indonesian ministers arrive in Canberra later this week for the Australian-Indonesian Ministerial Forum, Australian officials will be unable to ignore the new bloodshed, despite Australia's stated policy of publicly opposing independence movements in Indonesia."
• US urges halt to violence in Irian Jaya. Agence France-Presse, December 6, 2000, "The United States on Monday bemoaned the latest 'tragic' deaths in Indonesia's restive Irian Jaya province and called on separatist leaders and the Jakarta government to back off from confrontation. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: 'We certainly regret the tragic loss of life. We call on the government of Indonesia and the people of Irian Jaya to exercise restraint and refrain from acts of violence.' He also reiterated US support for the territorial integrity of Indonesia. Police shot dead six independence supporters angered by the lowering of their flag in the town of Merauke on Saturday, sparking a rampage in which pro-independence backers killed two settlers from other parts of Indonesia. But while calling for restraint, Mr Boucher criticised the imprisonment of five independence leaders which 'should have no place in today's open and democratic Indonesia'."
• Indonesian troops dispatched to quell growing separatist movements. CNN, December 1, 2000. "We have been independent for 39 years. The Indonesians just don't want to believe it," Eluay said before his arrest.
• Be ready to shoot, troops told. Lindsay Murdoch, December 1, 2000, Sydney Morning Herald. "Indonesian security forces have been ordered to be ready to shoot any armed separatists at pro-independence rallies scheduled across West Papua today."
• Jakarta's seething volcano. Doug Bandow, Chronicles Magazine, March 2001. "For three decades, the now-enfeebled Suharto won U.S. support by opposing communism. Along the way, he built a kleptocracy that turned his family into billionaires. But he stayed in power by spreading the cash. Today, quiet neighborhoods host beautiful homes owned by retired generals and well-connected businessmen. Some of the wealth even made it down to the mass of people. Symbols of Western influence - Pizza Hut and McDonald's, for instance - abound. The 1997 Asian economic crisis, however, turned the vast wealth gaps into a political minefield. U.S. and International Monetary Fund aid could not prevent the riots that led the military to discard Suharto. The result is an unstable democracy headed by President Wahid Abdurrahman, whose physical incapacities and mental inconsistencies long ago lost their charm. The country seems to be slowly sliding into chaos."
• Samoa Delegate Warns of Troubles in Indonesia's Irian Jaya. American Samoa Delegate Eni Faleomavaega, a non-voting member of the U.S. Congress, criticized Indonesian rule over Irian Jaya and warned of possible violence in that part of the island nation. October 18, 2000.
• 30 die in riots over independence flag. Sydney Morning Herald, October 9, 2000.
• 40 Killed In Western New Guinea. New York Times, October 8, 2000. "JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Hundreds of police and troops patrolled a remote western New Guinea town Sunday after as many as 40 people were killed in fierce clashes with separatists fighting for independence from Indonesia, officials and news reports said."
• Indonesia Mine a Blessing and a Curse. CNN. February 21, 1996. "It is a region rich in natural resources such as gold, copper and zinc and, until early this century, was populated by only a few indigenous tribes. But the Stone Age communities were forced to come face-to-face with the 20th century when the U.S. company Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold began mining operations in Irian Jaya almost 30 years ago. Now, Freeport's massive mine near the town of Timka is at the center of a worldwide environmental and political dispute."