ustxtxb_obs_1995_11_17_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

ABRI about their rights. However,’ those shooting did not care and kept shooting at the crowd from all directions.” The report continues, “ABRI and Freeport security shot dead three civilians, five Dani people disappeared, and thirteen Waa and B anti civilians were arrested and tortured.” Later that day, according to the report, eyewitnesses saw Indonesian army troops execute five Dani tribesmen, earlier seen tied and blindfolded on a Freeport bus in Tembagapura. However, the bodies of the men were never found. The report also details extensive torture of the local people by the Indonesian military. In response to the allegations, Freeport spokesman Bill Collier \(who visited the mine previously, when he worked as a reporter for the Austin American -said, “I’ve seen that report. Two things. One, we don’t comment on allegations about the Indonesian government. Second, the allegations about Freeport security personnel are totally false. Freeport security over there is unarmed and focuses simply on security of the mine facility and families and workers and so forth.” Collier refused to answer any other questions. ACFOA estimates that the local people, who are primarily members of the Amungme tribe, have lost about ten thousand hectares of land since Freeport began mining in the region in 1967, and that a new contract signed by the company and the Indonesian government will allow Freeport to prospect on an additional two and a half million hectares of land occupied by the local people. When it was released, the report caused an uproar in Australia and Indonesia. The Indonesian government promptly denied the allegations, saying that ACFOA had an “overactive imagination.” But on April 7, Gareth Evans, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, asked for an investigation of the situation at the Freeport mine. In addition, ACFOA asked for an investigation by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial Executions and the Indonesian Commission on Human Rights. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH REPORT The ACFOA report was followed in August by a report issued by the Catholic Church of Jayapura. The Church’s report corroborates parts of the ACFOA report. It also describes additional alleged acts of torture and murder, including detention of local villagers in Freeport shipping containers. The reports quote eyewitnesses who said that on May 31, Indonesian soldiers “shot a number of Amungme indigenous people from Hoea, killing eleven of them.” All eleven of the people, including Reverend Martinus Kibak, a protestant minister, were killed while they were praying. The report recounts numerous acts of torture and detention of local villagers in Freeport shipping containers. The report further documents abuses that occurred on Christmas Day, 1994, saying that twenty Amungme villagers were detained after the demonstration in Tembagapura. “No one escaped torture,” said one of the Amungme leaders. “They were beaten with rattan, sticks and rifle butts, and kicked with boots. Their hands were all crushed and were swollen. We were detained in groups. The number detained earlier were tortured until they died, but later arrivals were just interrogated in a normal way.” At about the same time, the report says another fourteen villagers, some Amungme and some from the Dani tribe, were taken to the Freeport workshop in Koperakopa. With their eyes taped shut and thumbs tied, one of the victims said, “We were beaten and tortured one by one by the soldiers, who took turns. They screamed at us and threatened to kill us if we would not confess that we had taken part in the demonstration in Tembagapura. Rifle butts, boots, fists, sticks landed on every part of our bodies.” H.F.M. Munninghoff, the bishop of Jayapura, said the church investigated the situation and issued its report because of the allegations in the ACFOA report. “This report is a very sad story about a number of incidents in the region around Timika, in the Fak-Fak district,” he said. “The district is also the centre of Freeport Indonesia Corporation mining activities.” The Church’s twenty-seven page report includes the names of all those who were killed, tortured or disappeared. THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT FREEPORT The reports come at an embarrassing time for the University of Texas. Last December, the UT Board of Regents voted to name a new molecular biology building on the main campus after Freeport chief executive officer and UT alum Jim Bob Moffett. And under an exclusive contract with Freeport-McMoRan, the UT Geology De Maria Katagamin: Vie went with my child to e a my post bringing; things for my husband and has brothers..` The commander brought us dr rectly to the cintainer, there we saw Fall the prisoners had their hands . and feet shackled:’ whale they were aired \(dijemur, Y cried and I gave what 1 brought to my husband and has brothers:. Then conga ikon was’ very `:pitiful, their bodies were very gaunt, aid their ….col ts,, the muZZ es’o f eir _ They pointed at A :forehead, ns n h..,r head a, e” put aust tor II heavy rrn weigh t o Put th e y weigh t and ed. Th an hour other hour it on oth un l The erailleth d to :,Then she had t her r too to ft.? theY e weight to eel g t f an put the or another a breast her to talk Then th ey n aga er ho e gu oth against ur aid or not, ey fo fluted reast cook/ out an hour a stethosc ope uliana – afr to find ‘ her b , couldn’t do uhour gThm acore t o back to her..ethwher was for ab “ot, and “‘enter y talk o a en they brought ‘ becausemere g t her h th ey er From Violations of Human Rights in the Timika area of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, A Report by the Catholic Church of Jayapura, August 1995. “The number detained earlier were tortured until they died, but later arrivals were just interrogated in a normal way.” 6 NOVEMBER 17, 1995