NEWMONT BELIEVES JAKARTA-BASED GROUPS BEHIND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 003849 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EMIN EINV PGOV ASEC ID SUBJECT: NEWMONT BELIEVES JAKARTA-BASED GROUPS BEHIND SUMBAWA VIOLENCE REF: A. A. JAKARTA 03690 (FREEPORT SEES LOOSE-KNIT GROUP) ¶B. B. JAKARTA 03484 (TENSION HIGH IN ABEPURA) ¶C. C. JAKARTA 03404 (DEMONSTRATIONS TURN VIOLENT) ¶D. D. JAKARTA 02492 (MINE CLOSED BY ILLEGAL MINERS) JAKARTA 00003849 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Jakarta-based environmental non-governmental organizations initiated the protests that ended in the destruction of Newmont Mining Company,s exploration camp at Elang on the island of Sumbawa on March 19, according to Newmont executives. As a result of the attack by approximately 50 local people, Newmont has closed the camp and suspended indefinitely its exploration activities in the area. Their large gold mine operation at Batu Hijau, 60 kilometers away, remains open and unaffected. Newmont believes that the NGOs are also involved at least partly in orchestrating the recent protests against Freeport and ExxonMobil. End summary. NGO STRATEGY TO DRIVE OUT NEWMONT -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Newmont Senior External Relations Manager Robert Humberson told us on March 22 that two Jakarta-based environmental non-governmental organizations, WALHI and JATAM, initiated recent protests against one of the Newmont Mining Company,s Indonesian subsidiaries, PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT) and its exploration camp at Elang on the island of Sumbawa. Humberson also claimed the two groups are at least one of the driving forces behind the recent Freeport demonstrations (see reftels). One week prior to the March 19 attack, Humberson said a person affiliated with JATAM had leaked to them a document that detailed a plan by WALHI (Friends of the Earth-Indonesia) and JATAM (the Indonesian Mining Advocacy Network) to drive PTNNT from the Elang area. According to the document, the two NGOS hoped to use their network of community organizers in the area to create unrealistic expectations for financial enrichment from the mining operation among the local villagers. Once these inflated expectations went unmet, the NGOs reasoned that the backlash by the local community would drive PTNNT from the area. ¶3. (SBU) Newmont said it was disappointed in the local police responsiveness, despite Newmont providing the leaked document to them along with further information that WALHI/JATAM had sent two local community organizers, Dedi and Hermann, to the area around Elang to stir up the villagers. The two community organizers had been proselytizing villagers about 30 kilometers from the exploration camp since 6 or 7 March, according to Humberson. He added the local police told them that they had everything under control and that Newmont was worrying excessively. Despite these assurances, the villagers cut the road to the camp and seized five PTNNT vehicles on 8 March, demanding that they be treated in financial terms exactly like the villagers immediately surrounding the exploration camp. The villagers held the vehicles for about a week and finally returned them on 15 March. Humberson said the local and district police continued to maintain that they had the situation under control. VILLAGERS WARN OF PLANNED MARCH; POLICE DO LITTLE -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) On or about 12 March, Humberson said they began to hear from villagers sympathetic to the company that Dedi and Hermann planned to organize a march of approximately 200 locals to the exploration camp, though he had no indication that they incited the villagers to commit violence. Humberson said they passed this information to the police, who again took no action. On March 17, Newmont received further information from sympathetic locals that the marchers were arming themselves with small containers of gasoline, information they also passed to the police. Humberson said the police again counseled against panic but did reinforce the number of their officers at the exploration camp from eight to 33. ¶5. (SBU) Based on the lack of police responsiveness to the vehicle seizures and their continued relative indifference to the information about the planned march, PTNNT decided to begin evacuating their staff from the camp on March 17. In the late afternoon of March 18, approximately 50 marchers JAKARTA 00003849 002.2 OF 002 entered the camp with gasoline and informed the remaining PTNNT employees that they intended to burn it down the following day. The group made no demands for discussion or negotiation with PTNNT. The police again took no action, according to Humberson. By the end of the day on March 18, Newmont had evacuated all staff and closed the camp. At about 05:30 th next day, the protestors returned and burned all the buildings in the camp, causing about USD 500,000 in damage. In total about eighteen wooden structures were destroyed. Police were nowhere in evidence during the early morning arson attack, according to Humberson. UNLIKELY TO REBUILD EXPLORATION CAMP -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Following the arson attack, Humberson said, somewhere between 200 and 400 locals supportive of PTNNT,s operations in the area began their own counter-march against the arsonists and attacked them in the woods. Humberson said he had no information that serious injuries resulted. Since the March 19 incident, Newmont has closed the camp, pulled out all the undamaged drilling equpment, and suspended indefinitely its exploratio activities in the area. Humberson said it was &less than a 50 percent chance8 that the Denver headquarters would ever decide to return to the area, though that decision has more to do with the unsatisfactory results from their explorations than security considerations. PTNNT,s main office in Sumbawa Besar remains closed indefinitely as well. Humberson said the local and district police are now conducting what appear to be thorough investigations of the incidents and the events leading up to them. ¶7. (SBU) Comment: Humberson offered no proof that the two NGOs are also behind the protests against Freeport and ExxonMobil, but it is very plausible that these long-time foes of the extractive industries would be coordinating on a national strategy against foreign mining and energy companies in Indonesia. Although there are almost surely other forces involved in fomenting the recent demonstrations against Freeport and ExxonMobil (Ref A),the activist networks of Walhi, Jatam and other NGOs are a key factor explaining the recent demonstrations. End comment. PASCOE