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Information on the Moffett Building Controversy from January 1, 1995 - October 30, 1995

  • Australian aid group alleges Indonesian atrocities, April 8, 1995, Reuter.

  • Australia's role: Mining giant's war on West Papua, Green Left Weekly, April 9, 1995.
    • "On the evening of February 9, an order was received by the Amungme people from Freeport security, who work in conjunction with ABRI. The statement was to the effect that some 2000 indigenous and other people living around the mine in the Waa valley, the Tsinga valley and the Arwaa valley were to be removed by the government in the next three months. Some of the indigenous Amungme claim to have been living in these areas for possibly longer than 25,000 years."
    • "Flying south into Timika from Biak, the observer can clearly see the damage to the environment adjacent to the Ajikwa river. Far along each riverbank for a kilometre or more back on each side, almost all vegetation was either dead or dying."
    • "Independent journalists are banned from Tembagapura. One Sydney-based Amungme, a political refugee, says this is due to the extent of the change that Freeport has created. ``The environmental and social damage is so bad that they [Freeport] don't want the outside world to know the truth'', he said."
    • "Australia has a direct and indirect involvement in all of this. I was told by three mutually independent sources that three times a month, Australian Special Air Service (SAS) specialist anti-guerilla forces are called in to work with ABRI on their ``sensitive'' anti-``GPK'' operations in the PNG border area."

  • Jim Bob Around the world, Texas Observer, July 28, 1995.

  • World Bank arm insures destructive mining from Peru to Indonesia, Pratap Chatterjee, IPS, August 14, 1996.

  • Freeport: Corporate predator, The Nation, July 31 - Aug 7, 1995, pp. 125-130. Reprinted in the Texas Observer.
    • "Freeport is the picture of modern corporatism, heedless of country or flag, ruthless in pursuit of profit. Across the globe its trail is marked by despoiled lands, poisoned water, ruined lives- its progress assured by a powerful nexus of forces. In Irian Jaya, it is the Indonesian military that guarantees Freeport's ability to do what it wants."
    • "Jim Bob calls Suharto `a compassionate man,' and indeed the dictator's tenderness for Freeport is such that he has seen to it that anyone who gets in the company's way is simply removed. About a month after the confrontation between the Amungme chief and the Freeport exec, 2,000 Amungme living near the mining site were ordered to leave their homes by the Indonesian government. It was a familiar action, one in a series of forced removals that began in 1967, when Freeport was granted the right to exploit Irian Jaya (West Papua)'s mineral resources. This was two years before Indonesia formally declared the country its twenty-sixth province, following an `Act of Free Choice' in which 1,205 representatives pre-selected by the Indonesian government made a decision for 800,000 people."

  • Indonesian Forces Blamed for Killings in Irian Jaya (West Papua). QUT Journalism/4EB Radio News Online, August 30, 1995.

  • Allegations concerning Irian Jaya (West Papua). Press release of some Australian governmental agency.

  • HUMAN RIGHTS-INDONESIA: US mining giant implicated in Indonesian atrocities . Pratap Chatterjee, September 5, 1995, IPS.

  • UT Tie To Mine Firm Prompts Resignation, Reuters, September 19, 1995.

  • West Papua: Indonesian military torture and murder at mining site. Survivial International, October 1995.

  • Freeport's involvement has not yet been investigated, Kompas (Jakarta newspaper), October 2, 1995. "The team of the National Commission for Human Rights has stated that the team has not yet carried out a thorough investigation of the involvement of PT Freeport in the violation of human rights in Timika, which is situated within the concession area of the company's gold and copper mine." (Report of this article received from Carmel Budiardjo, tapol@gn.apc.org.)

  • Berdahl addresses hazing, Campus Master Plan, Daily Texan, October 10, 1995. "He (UT President Berdahl) also challenged the evening's final caller, who questioned Berdahl on the University's dealings with development company Freeport-McMoRan and its chief executive officer, UT alumnus Jim Bob Moffett. In response to the caller's view that the University should not accept contributions from the company, which has been accused of human rights abuses at its mine site in Indonesia, Berdahl said it is important for the University to maintain a `position of political neutrality.' UT officials decided to name the new molecular science building after Freeport-McMoRan CEO Moffett and his wife, Louise, after they donated $2 million for its construction. `We have to be committed to being a neutral forum,' Berdahl said. `We cannot censor the contributions [of University benefactors] based on their point of view.' Berdahl linked the right to donate money freely with the circulation of free thought. The University has `to be a free place,' he said."

  • Washington may face rights test in U. S. firm's Indonesian operations, Los Angeles Times, Monday, October 30, 1995, p. A5.
    • "WASHINGTON - This is a story of how Washington deals with the Other Asia, the one often forgotten these days. It is a story of death and torture, of jungles, gold and the Washington bureaucracy."
    • "The Catholic bishop's report said those who died, and others who were released, were tortured during interrogation. It said the victims were kicked in the belly, chest and head by people wearing army boots; beaten with rifle butts; forced to kneel with iron bars behind their knees, and shackled by the thumbs, wrists or legs. `The torture was conducted in Freeport containers, the Army Commander's Mess, the police station and the Freeport security post,' Bishop Herman Munninghoff (of Irian Jaya (West Papua)) wrote in his report."