• "A tribe living near Indonesia's PT Freeport copper and gold mine renewed calls on Monday for an investigation into the mining giant's alleged involvement in human rights abuses in remote Irian Jaya (West Papua) province."
• "Four representatives of the Amungme tribe from Timika told the official National Commission of Human Rights that Freeport was involved in human rights abuses because they took place on its premises and its facilities were used during the incidents."
• "`The root of the problem is the looting of the rights of the Amungme, Komoro, Dani and Ekari tribes by Freeport since the company entered Irian Jaya (West Papua),' they said in a statement handed over to the commission."

• "Irian's Amungme tribal council Monday urged the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas Ham) to reopen probes on killings and torture in and around the Freeport copper and gold mines in Irian Jaya."
• "`We ask Komnas Ham to do field work again to reinvestigate Freeport's involvement (in the killings and tortures),' Tom Beanal of the Amungme tribal council said during a hearing with members of the commission."
• "The tribal council, in a report presented to Komnas Ham Monday, alleged that `direct reports from our people said that 77 (Irianese) people were killed by security officials between July 1994 - June 1995.'"
• "Emmy Hafild of the environmental non-governmental organization Walhi, who accompanied the tribal council members, said that Freeport and the Amungme people should have direct discussions about the Amungmes' grievances."

• "In Indonesia, a tribal council in the province of Irian Jaya (West Papua) has called for a reopening of an investigation into killings and torture near the big Freeport copper and gold mine. The Amungme council urged the National Human Rights Commission to look into the possible involvement of the Freeport company in the killings. The commission reported last year that Indonesian security forces had been guilty of human rights violations, including 16 killings, but it was vague about the involvement of Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of the American company Freeport McMoRan."
• "The tribal council said it had established that 77 people had been killed by security forces between July 1994 and June last year."

• "University of Texas deans and top administrators have weighed in on the controversy swirling around naming a new molecular biology building for someone other than Jim Bob Moffett and his wife Louise. Their advice: Don't do it."
• "The Deans' Council, an advisory body made up of 32 deans and campus administrators, is now on the opposite side of the issue from the Faculty Council, which approved a resolution last month asking the UT Board of Regents to approach the Moffetts about withdrawing their names from the building."
• "`We encourage the chancellor and the Board of Regents not to seek a reversal of its decision on the naming of the molecular biology building,' the deans' Feb. 27 statement says. `The Deans' Council believes it is vital for the university to honor its commitments to donors and to keep its word when recognizing them for gifts.'"

• "But the media in Austin and New Orleans have turned a skeptical eye on a company they see as trying to oversell its virtue."
• "`Jim Bob Moffett spent more money on ads explaining why he was making the playgrounds than on the playgrounds themselves,' one local reporter says. According to Robinette (Planit), the company bombarded the community with print and television advertising. `We circumvented the [media] industry,' Robinette says,
  `and today Freeport is the most highly thought-of company in Louisiana.'"
• "Oppel took the opportunity to blast the company, in a December 15 editorial marking what many consider a new era in Statesman coverage. `Corporate leaders today apparently are advised by public relations strategists and Wall Street analysts to strike back furiously, absolutely punishing critics, when drawn into controversy,' he wrote. `The results are not pretty.' Oppel went on to express his support for those who received the threatening letters."

• "The Komnas HAM (Indonesian Human Right's Commission) secretariat confirmed that they would be sending another fact-finding team to the Timika area to search for more facts regarding the violation of human rights in and around the Freeport area. The decision to send another team to the area was made on 5 March, after meeting with representatives of the Amungme people who had made their way to Jakarta to talk to Komnas HAM about incidents of human rights violations."
• "New facts have emerged from such discussions. Amungme representatives claim that in the 28 years that Freeport has been operating in the area, many more human rights violations have occurred than were outlined in the Bishop's report. Previous Komnas HAM trips to the area focused on the allegations made in the Bishop's report. Previously Komnas HAM had stated that only 16 people had been killed in an incident and that a further four had disappeared after being detained by the authorities."

"The contents of the item in Cendrawasih Pos are roughly as follows:

• "About three thousand people armed with a variety of weapons such as sticks, spears and arrows mounted an attack on Tembagapura, the headquarters of Freeport/RTZ, on Monday, 10 March, attacking shops, company offices and the homes of Freeport officials. They also severely damaged the newly built police station in the town, and laid seige to a company security post."

  "The event leading up to this eruption of anger was that a Dani man named Julianus Kogoya was knocked down by a vehicle driven by a Freeport official in Timika last week. He was taken to the company hospital in Tembagapura. When two relatives, Guarimo and Binut (sp?) Kogoya went to the hospital to visit him, they were refused access. This led them to believe that he must have died or been killed. The two men returned to Waa village on 7 March and reported that their kinsman had been killed."

  "Two days later, on 9 March, the villagers held a meeting with Freeport officials and presented a series of demands, the details of which are not given by Cendrawasih Pos. The demands were rejected. Infuriated by the company's response, a huge crowd of some three thousand people from several different tribes - Dani, Amungme and Moni - marched on Tembagapura where they attacked many places in the town on 10 March, inflicting a great deal of damage on company property."

• "In recent months, Freeport-McMoRan has been criticized by human rights activists, environmentalists, academics, and a U. S. government agency for the rapid expansion of its mining operation ... This week, Freeport has come under assault of a more elemental sort. Members of tribes in Irian Jaya (West Papua) ... have stormed the homes of company employees, the shops where they buy goods, the offices where they work and the white Toyotas they drive."
• "In a telephone interview from Jayapura, the provincial capital, Rumbiak (a community activist who has worked closely with the tribes) said that as many as 6,000 people were involved."
• "`This is unusual, indeed,' Greg Probst, a Freeport spokesman said from New Orleans. `I'm sure that when this situation calms down there will be discussions with local groups. We always try to maintain an open relationship with all of the groups in the local area.'"

• "Riots involving several thousand indigenous peoples in Irian Jaya (West Papua), the eastern-most island of Indonesia, have caused the U.S. operators of the world's largest gold mine to temporarily shut down operations."
• "Activists in Irian Jaya (West Papua) who are in contact with the protestors read a statement to IPS over the phone. `We fight against Jim Bob Moffett, (the chief executive officer of Freeport), Freeport and the government. We fight because our rights are not recognised, our resources are extracted and destroyed while our lives are taken,' said the statement."

• Literally thousands of natives rioted March 10, 11, and 12 (and maybe 13) near the Freeport mine on the island of New Guinea, in three separate towns (Tembagapura, Timika, and the New Town), at various Freeport facilities along the mine road, and at the Timika airport. Estimates have ranged as high as 6,000 rioters. The minimal total estimate seems to have been about 1,000 rioters.
• Rioters included members of the Amungme, Kamoro, Ekari, Dani, and other tribes. Rioters included women and children.
• There was damage to Freeport buildings, equipment, and vehicles, Some report say millions of dollars worth of damage occurred account, but Freeport says it does not believe there will be a significant financial impact from the rioting. The control tower at the Timika airport was damaged. Reports about the airport's re-opening have conflicted.
• There have only been reports of at most fours deaths so far, but dozens of injuries. At least two deaths, to rioters aged 12 and 15, were attributed to automobile accidents to rioters caused by the rioters. But one death, and 15 injuries, were said to have occurred at a clash at a market at Timika. But it appears that this clash was not with the military! Maybe with shop owners? Seven rioters from Banti/Hwa have been arrested for questioning in connection with the riot, and Amnesty International fears for their safety. (Incredibly, Amnesty is very picky about posting their stuff, even verbatim, stuff that it is ok to copy on paper. Complaints to ua@amnesty.org.uk.)
• The military was relatively (perhaps one should say marvelously, but also even perplexingly) restrained, shooting rubber bullets in defense of critical facilities such as the airport, shooting into the air, and shooting at tires of Freeport vehicles controlled by rioters. The legs of several people who attacked the airport were shot. Perhaps as many as 2,800 additional troops are being deployed near the mine, up from the normal contingent of 150, though most estimates suggest that only another 700 have been flown in.
• The rioters demanded to meet with Jim Bob Moffett, who flew to Irian Jaya (West Papua) and held a very dramatic meeting the morning of March 14 at the Sheraton Hotel in Timika with 40 delegates representing 12 tribes of Irian Jaya (West Papua) who live near Timika. For a tasteless spoof of this very serious meeting, see roast.
• The mine/mill was entirely shut down for two and a half days, as a precautionary measure, but has since been reopened. Throughout, ore continued to be loaded at the port of Amammapare, and it seems unlikely that any Freeport shipments will be delayed.

• "`The riots were caused by the buried anger of the Irianese against Freeport which has been accumulating for years,' said the statement, obtained by Reuters.

  "`The anger is caused by dissatisfaction with Freeport's behavior, particularly the human rights abuses which happened in order to protect Freeport's investment or those done by Freeport itself through its security guards,' it said.

  "`The anger is also added to by the dissatisfaction with the effects of Freeport's activities and the fact that the profit is mostly enjoyed by the migrants, the statement said. "