February 12, 2008

Rick Ness Retires, Eric Ness Stops Blogging, But I Will Keep Writing

"The Buyat controversy has taken away precious three and half years out of my family’s life, but we still feel that justice delayed is still justice."

Eric Ness was writing about yet another court ruling vindicating his father, Richard Ness, and American gold mining giant Newmont of any wrong doing at his blog www.richardness.org.

Eric wrote, "This verdict resonates perfectly with the ruling in the criminal case by the Manado High Court, thereby reaffirming once again that Buyat Bay is clean.

"While the latest verdict brings one more chapter of the Buyat Bay hoax to an end, it should mark the beginning of serious soul-searching for WALHI [the Indonesian affiliate of Friends of the Earth]. Most importantly, it raises questions about Chalid Mohammed and his leadership of WALHI.

"By now it is commonly known that Newmont followed all the regulations and there are irrefutable scientific facts that show that Buyat Bay is clean. Prominent evidence that supported these conclusions included Government of Indonesia’s own reports and testimonies as well as the findings of researchers from the World Health Organization, CSIRO-Australia and other academicians from Indonesia’s universities.

"So it was not very surprising when Judge I Ketut Manika stated in court, "The plaintiff could not prove its accusations that there was environmental pollution caused by PT Newmont Minahasa Raya in Buyat Bay”.

Read more here:
http://richardness.org/blog/walhilosescivilcaseagainstnewmont.php

Also in late December 2007 Richard Ness retired from Newmont.

Earlier this month, Eric sent out an email, explaining that "with my Dads retirement from Newmont and the case is essentially done, I am looking to conclude updating richardness.org. I am writing a paper to gain additional insight in to how effective the web site was in getting my family’s message out, how blogs work and their network effect. I’m also very interested in how many in the press actually used the site.

I have set up a quick poll with only four questions in it and if you could take a minute to fill out the survey that would greatly be appreciated. It is completely anonymous and I would be willing to share the details of the results if anyone is interested.

Take the survey:
http://www.richardness.org/link.php?link=11&id=69

Read more about Buyat Bay here: http://www.buyatbayfacts.com/

Read many of my blog posts here: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/cat_mining.html

I first started writing about the saga in November 2005, read my first blog post here: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/001007.html

I visted Indonesia to hear the verdict in the criminal trial in April 2007

Jen snorkling at Buyat Bay, April 2007

The Indonesian government has since refused to give me a visa to visit Indonesia to continue research for my book about the saga. I had hoped to visit in June 2007, then November 2007 and I have now given up trying and recently asked for my passport back from the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra.

But I will nevertheless complete my book and use http:www.richardness.org as a handy link to so much information including the english transcript of the final verdict in the criminal trial, click here: http://www.richardness.org/media/Verdict_Transcript%20of%20Hearing%2024%20April%202007.pdf

So, thanks so much Eric Ness!

Posted by jennifer at 09:13 PM

December 28, 2007

Newmont Wins Civil Suit in Jakarta, Rick Ness Retires

The mining thread at this blog has been dominated by the Buyat Bay saga; the alleged deliberate pollution of the bay, fishing village and its fringing coral reef in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, by US mining giant Newmont and in particular its Indonesian boss Richard Ness.

I attended the verdict in the criminal trial of Mr Ness earlier this year. He was acquitted of all charges.

National environment group WALHI brought a civil suit against Newmont about a month before that verdict was due to be handed down. On Tuesday December 18, 2007 the South Jakarta District Court of Indonesia cleared Newmont of any environmental wrongdoing at Buyat Bay, dismissing the civil suit. A spokesperson for Newmont commented that, “We hope this second exoneration by yet another Indonesian court will put to rest - once and for all - the hoax that Buyat Bay is polluted.”

An opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal included comment that, “Accusations against business folks these days get a lot more publicity than acquittals do, so we thought we'd let you know about a victory for a U.S. mining company facing bogus charges that it was responsible for killing poor villagers in Indonesia. The case was promoted by environmentalists and hyped with a 2,600-word page-one article in the New York Times in 2004.”

The same week Newmont was cleared in Jakarta, Rick Ness announced his retirement. My best wishes to Rick and Nova for life after Newmont.

You can read more about the Buyat Bay Saga at his son Eric's website: http://www.richardness.org.

Posted by jennifer at 10:18 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

October 12, 2007

Indonesian Court Throws Out Case Against New York Times on 'Buyat Bay Saga'

"An Indonesian court has thrown out a lawsuit brought by a mining executive against the New York Times over reports the firm dumped toxic waste into an Indonesian bay, lawyers said Thursday.

Richard Ness, an executive with US mining giant Newmont, sued the newspaper and one of its reporters for more than 64 million dollars for defamation over articles published in 2004.

The stories alleged Newmont polluted the bay with tonnes of waste from its now-defunct gold mine on the island of Sulawesi.

A three-judge panel said the Central Jakarta state court "does not have the authority to hear and judge this case," according to Gani Djemat and Partners, the law firm representing the defendants...

The defence argued that the journalist was not an Indonesian national or a resident here, that The New York Times did not have a representative office in Indonesia and that it did not commit the alleged defamation in the country.

Read more here: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5imv8JHIGm6TK1Ky9bZZM-wI8nQXQ

There is a lot about the alleged pollution of Buyat Bay in the archives of this blog, click here and scroll down: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/cat_mining.html

Posted by jennifer at 09:34 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

August 27, 2007

Richard Ness Sends A Letter To 'Friends of the Earth': A Blog Post from Eric

Earlier this week the Australian chapter of 'Friends of the Earth' posted a statement on their website in response to comments made by Australian Senator Ian Macdonald.

The press release stated:

National environmental organisation, Friends of the Earth (FoE) Australia, has responded angrily to a statement made in the Senate by Ian Macdonald implying that its sister organisation, WALHI/ Friends of the Earth Indonesia is linked to terrorists.

"Today’s statement by Senator Macdonald is scandalously and recklessly incorrect" said Cam Walker, FoE Australia.

Senator Ian Macdonald earlier that day on the Senate floor stated the following:

Interestingly, WALHI appears to have now been joined by radical Islamic groups in its campaign against the US mining giant, Newmont. A photograph— which I could perhaps table if the Senate were interested—recently featured in the Indonesian press shows Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, flanked by Muhammad Al Khaththah, the leader of the Indonesian chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, attacking Newmont’s environmental record.

I also note an article from the Straits Times of 22 April 2006 which states:

The head of Walhi [Chalid Muhammad], the main environmental group, is also a member of Hizbut Tahrir, a hardline Muslim group which emerged over the past year, and which has been famously described as being a ‘conveyor belt for terrorists’. Although the group claims to be non-violent, the Walhi chairman took part in recent violent demonstrations outside the US embassy, wearing full Islamic robes.

Please read the rest of the blog post by Eric Ness here which includes a letter from Richard Ness to Friends of the Earth:

http://www.richardness.org/link.php?link=9&id=69

Posted by jennifer at 08:07 PM | Comments (4)

August 16, 2007

Different Emotional Responses to Mining and Logging in Jarrah Forests: A Note from Boxer

The response by our society to mining on one hand and logging on the other in the jarrah forests of Western Australia could not be more in contrast. Alcoa’s bauxite mining is met with silence, but to oppose logging of virtually any sort (even of plantations in some cases) has become a normal part of the moral foundation for all well-informed citizens. Yet if we look at other forms of economic activity that covers large tracts of land, only well-managed tourism could be said to have a similar or less environmental impact than well-managed commercial native forestry.

As Roger Underwood recently explained, bauxite mining causes total removal of all organisms from large tracts of the forest and removal of several metres of soil (bauxite ore), material that is the foundation upon which a forest exists. This is followed by re-establishment of the forest back onto the irreversibly altered soil profile. The changes that are imposed by mining are permanent in terms of geological time scales – these soils/ores were formed on-site by many millions of years of weathering of the underlying granite basement rock. Roger’s post gives additional important information.

Logging on the other hand is a short period of harvesting that occurs within a process that takes many decades: the forest is regenerated, managed by thinning, controlled burning and other practices, leading to the maturing of the overstorey trees over a period of between one and several human generations. Harvesting occurs again, followed by the same regeneration and management process. Many Australian native forests have been through two or three such cycles, yet they are now considered “high conservation value” forests by the greens and the public.

Harvesting may be either clear felling at one extreme to selective (individual tree) logging at the other, and there is a continuous spectrum of logging practices between the extremes. But most importantly, the soil is left almost undisturbed compared to mining, and the understory is not stripped away. No species has been recorded as having been driven to extinction by logging in Australia, though this is not a reason to be complacent. It does indicate that the commercial use of native Australian forests since European settlement has had less impact upon biodiversity than urban expansion or farming, or indeed the first arrival of humans tens of thousands of years ago.

Possibly the paradox arises because of three factors and our normal emotional responses to these factors. They are our perception of order versus chaos, a sense of time, and a sense of space.

Order versus chaos

Order and chaos are easy to recognise. In this context, logging is chaotic. The jumble of smashed limbs and small trees presents a confronting image. Furthermore, as timber has a relatively low economic value and the yields per hectare are relatively low, the logging debris is left in place for a year or so and then burnt (more chaos), which means that chaos interacts with time to create the impression of lasting destruction. There is plenty of time for Bob Brown to get up on top of the biggest stump (“big” being related to our sense of space) for photo opportunities.

In contrast mining demonstrates a good deal of order. After logging, the debris, stumps, and all the understorey is heaped and mulched and removed promptly. Access to the entire mining “envelope” is prohibited for safety reasons. Some of this biomass debris is sold for renewable energy and charcoal, whereas native forest logging residues from normal logging are ruled to be non-renewable. This is known as “painting with the Alcoa brush”, because this is all it takes to change a commodity from dirty and undesirable to green and renewable. This simple self-deception occurs at senior corporate and political levels, as well as at the general public level. I maintain that it makes more sense to consider all the biomass residues from logging and mining to be renewable, as occurs across Europe and North America.

The sense of order in mining continues because after the removal of the biomass residues the open mine area looks like a ploughed paddock. The boundary of the surrounding forest is clearly and cleanly defined and looking into a tall forest from the side is an emotionally pleasant experience. As the site is stripped, drilled, blasted and the ore removed, there is little confronting imagery of chaos, though many people find the instant of blasting very confronting if they can see it. By the time the public are allowed back (after the mining envelope moves away through the bush) the pit has been rehabilitated and order continues to reign – smoothed contours, curved parallel rip lines, young plants germinating under-foot. It’s a positively pastoral image.

The importance of time comes up in several ways. During the time of public exclusion from a mining envelope, the public is unaware of the time passing for this particular point in the forest. A tour of Alcoa’s operations takes you from one point in the process to the next by bus: this step is followed by this step, by this step etc, and then ... here is the rehabilitated pit. The emotional response of the viewer is influenced by the rapidity of the tour. You’re back home in time for tea. The same occurs if foresters take you on a tour of forest operations, but the demand for such tours is non-existent. The public do not wish to be further informed about commercial forestry and the political arm of government would be reluctant to fund such public relations exercises for an industry that the public tells them should be closed down.

In contrast, the campaigns against forestry always leave the observer with the impression that this smashed up post-logging condition is the end result, rather than the end of one week’s work in a cycle that spans many decades. You are never shown photos of the stump Bob Brown stood on ten years after the logging, because the regrowth at that stage is so thick, it would tend to detract from the message of “devastation, forever”. Bob wouldn’t even be able to find the same stump.

A sense of time

Time can also be influential in other ways; telling people that the devastation in this photo will look like the young forest in that tourist brochure in three decades has little emotional impact. A trivial immediate benefit is of much greater emotional consequence than a major benefit in the next decade. So long periods of time can make it harder to portray the concept of an environmental impact now (logging) being followed by a positive response a human generation in the future.

It is interesting how green activism often involves the use of photos taken in regrowth forest. In this case, the beauty of the tall evenly-spaced trees (the sense of order again, but did you realise they are spaced that way because of thinning?) is used to convey the impression of permanence, and the permanence of a good thing being desirable. Senescing forest, with it’s dead tops and crooked old trees, is rarely used for this type of publicity, because to do so would disrupt the sense of order and implies decay, and so undermines the association between the attractive forest and permanence. However if you take people to that same patch of regrowth forest and show them a photo of what the exact same spot looked like immediately after it was last logged, or killed by wildfire, they are astounded and often excited. In this case it is possible to use a long period of time from the past devastation to convey the understanding that the forest is a vibrant dynamic system. I find young forests uplifting.

A sense of space

Space is critical. Big is always better in emotional terms if you are contemplating an object of which you approve, but the reverse applies if you are contemplating something of which you disapprove. (If you want to minimise the effect of a traumatic memory, you repeatedly visualise it and then make the image smaller in your mind.) A tall dominant tree species is generally much more emotionally influential than a dumpy sub-dominant species. A tall straight tree is more valuable than a crooked or heavily forked tree, which comes back to the sense of order and possibly the perception of beauty being related to symmetry.

Selective, or single-tree logging is widely perceived to be more benign than clear-felling, because the area of chaos is smaller. The small clearing created by the tree’s falling crown is surrounded by undisturbed forest. The big stump used for the anti-logging photo opportunity is always taken against a background of an open space caused by clear felling, and that space always continues to the local horizon, which creates the impression that this chaos extends, if not to the nearest coastline, certainly as far as the eye can see. A short camera lens is used and the image cropped to convey the impression of perhaps a thousand metres to the cleared horizon. It is never taken with the 50 year old regrowth just behind the photographer in the shot.

But this use of space to engender a feeling of anxiety about total destruction over vast tracts of land may be at odds with the evidence of forest science. In some forests (typically the tall wet forest types in Australia) it is better to regenerate blocks of forest as even aged self-sown seedlings over areas of perhaps 10 to 30 hectares to reduce competition between established trees and seedlings. And 10 hectares, photographed from the right angle with a short lens, carries a strong emotional impact. The data that demonstrates the degrading influence of selective logging in some forests has no appeal at the emotional level.

It is a curious contrast between public and activist reactions to logging and mining. Examining the basic differences in perceptions of logging and mining, for example, the perceptions of space, time and order/chaos, demonstrate that the emotional responses to logging are not related to the fundamentals of conservation.

In the context of this discussion, none of these factors directly relate to the fundamental principle of conservation of protecting biodiversity. To prevent the extinction of any species seems to me to be the inviolable principle of conservation. If we were really honest with ourselves, then our emotional responses to these three factors would have little relevance to the preservation of biodiversity.

Boxer is a regular reader and sometimes contributor to this blog.

Posted by jennifer at 01:14 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

August 08, 2007

Bauxite Mining in Jarrah Forests: A Note from Roger Underwood

One of the most interesting anomalies in Australian environmentalism is that the alumina industry is destroying the jarrah forest – and nobody seems to care. At least, nobody is complaining.

Open cut mining of State Forests in Western Australia by two alumina producers (Alcoa and Worseley) has been going on for about 40 years. Mining involves clean cutting of the forest (removal of all saleable timber, including woodchips), full agricultural clearing, blasting with explosives and then removal of the forest soil. This converts the jarrah forest into a patchwork of pits 8-10 metres deep and up to 40 hectares in size. In and around the pits the remnant forest is criss-crossed with haul roads, crusher sites, conveyor belts and power lines. The rate of forest clearance is about 1000 hectares a year. It is estimated that mining will proceed for at least another 50 years.

The mined-out pits are “rehabilitated” by smoothing the edges, ripping the pit floor (a white kaolinitic clay) with bulldozers and replacing a film of topsoil. Various tree and shrub species are then sown or planted. Pre-1988 the revegetation was basically a plantation of exotic species, mostly eucalypts indigenous to NSW; post 1988 the main tree species planted or sown is jarrah.

Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) is a tall long-lived tree noted for its superb timber, toughness and resilience. It grows in a relatively harsh environment of long dry summers, frequent fire, and infertile soils. Jarrah occurs only in a restricted area in the southwest of Western Australia. Most of the northern jarrah forest is also an important water resource area and protects the city and goldfields water supply catchments. It also provides important habitat to native species, a range of recreational activities and is famous for its springtime display of endemic wildflowers. Jarrah timber played an important role in the development of Western Australia. It was used almost exclusively in the construction of the State’s harbours, bridges and railways, for telephone and electricity distribution, for house and building construction, for fine furniture manufacture and domestic and industrial firewood. For many decades it was the State’s third most valuable export (after wheat and wool) and was regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful, as well as strongest and most durable timbers.

In a biogeographical and ecological sense, the jarrah forest is virtually an island. It falls within the Australian south-west botanical province, known as a biodiversity hotspot - most jarrah forest can carry 60 or more different species of plants in the understorey - and is home to a unique fauna. To the west of the forest belt is the coastal sandplain, these days increasingly becoming one large residential subdivision. To the north and east are the cleared agricultural regions and to the south the narrow strip of karri forest and the Southern Ocean. The forests were traditionally managed for water production, catchment protection, sustainable timber production, wildlife conservation and recreation. In more recent times the management priority has been designated simply as “conservation of biodiversity”, but as we shall see, this is subservient to minerals production. The jarrah timber industry scarcely now exists. This has been virtually extinguished over the last 5 years as logging became a politically unacceptable activity in the state’s forests. The few small timber production operations remaining are all based on regrowth forests, where they are under constant challenge from protest groups whose aim is the total elimination of the industry.

Jarrah forest soils are lateritic and contain bauxite. This is the ore from which alumina and ultimately aluminium is produced. In the 1960s, the State government issued leases for bauxite mining over 800,000 hectares of jarrah forest, and put in place State Agreement Acts which guaranteed easy access to the leaseholders. Mining commenced in the forest in the mid-1960s and expanded rapidly. At first there was a single mine near Jarrahdale. The ore was railed to a refinery at Kwinana. Before long a new refinery had been built near Pinjarra and new mines were opened up at Del Park and Huntly on the banks of the South Dandalup dam (part of Perth’s water supply). By the early 1980s there was a third refinery at Wagerup, a new mine in State Forests south of the Murray River, another mine at Mt Saddleback and a fourth refinery near Collie. As recently as 2006 the WA Environmental Protection Authority approved a further expansion of the rate of mining for the Wagerup refinery, and there are current moves by the State government to expand the rate of mining for the Worsely refinery, so that it is likely that the annual rate of forest destruction will soon exceed 1000 ha.

There was some initial opposition to the forest mining, mainly from foresters, including a campaign run by the Institute of Foresters in the 1960s. The Institute produced an excellent booklet, detailing the undesirable impacts of mining on the forest ecosystem. However, these protests were quickly snuffed out, the problem being that most foresters at that time were also public servants, and it was illegal for them to criticise government policy, even as members of their professional institute. The “conservation movement” showed an initial flicker of interest, but this died away almost immediately. At that time and ever since, the focus of environmentalists was on the timber industry, bushfire management and forestry. Over the last 40 years, there has not been a peep of protest from any green organisation in WA (government or NGO) about bauxite mining.

In this light, it is worth looking at the mining operation in more detail. Mining eliminates the entire forest ecosystem both above and below ground. Following clearing no native plant or animal survives. Following mining the forest soil itself is irreplaceably gone. The natural landscape is greatly altered, since the best bauxite deposits are on the gravely uplands, and these disappear, leading to a landscape with less topographical variation. The post-mining revegetation is sown into well-cultivated and fertilised topsoil and comes away rapidly. Visually it resembles even-aged regeneration after clearfelling or in the gaps created by selective logging (the latter being the normal silvicultural approach in jarrah forest).

There are many concerns however. No experienced forester would guarantee the long term viability of dense forest stands growing on a film of topsoil over highly impermeable clay and granite. Jarrah prefers deep friable gravels with excellent water-holding capacity. Where thin, heavy soils occur in the natural forest, jarrah tends to be replaced by wandoo and on shallow soils over granite it is more common to find sheoak. The oldest minesite rehabilitation is now about 40. Some of these stands have started to look very sick as the present period of below-average rainfall persists. Ecologically, the revegetation is very different from the original forest, and some obvious niches have been eliminated. For example no “habitat” trees are retained to provide for hollow-nesting bird species, as is the case in areas from which timber is cut. Some “old growth” elements, such as grass trees, will take centuries to re-establish, or may never regrow on the new substrate.

Apart from the loss of native forest, there has been a significant loss of run-off into streams and dams in the mined-over catchment areas. Pits have been designed to retain rather than shed rainfall, so run-off to forest streams is close to zero, and in many cases old mine pits cover nearly 50% of each sub-catchment. This has obvious impacts on water resources and aquatic ecosystems. The revegetated mine pits also represent a challenge to bushfire management. Although the young rehabilitation (up to about age 4) will generally not carry a fire, litter and flammable understorey soon begin to build up and the new plantations are extremely hazardous and vulnerable to fire over the next 10 years.

There are other environmental concerns. Alumina refineries produce toxic waste (soil contaminated with caustic soda) and both the refineries and aluminium smelters are significant consumers of electricity and emitters of greenhouse gasses. Bauxite miners are exempt from the requirements of both the State’s Wildlife Conservation Act and the Clearing Control Legislation. These Acts can severely constrain landowners who wish to carry out commercial timber production in their own native forest, or to undertake prescribed burning for bushfire remediation (which the government includes within the definition of “clearing”).

Given their fierce opposition to the comparatively benign and ephemeral impacts of timber cutting and prescribed burning, it might be expected that environmentalists and green bureaucrats would be dying in their boots to oppose and hamstring bauxite mining in the jarrah forest. This has not occurred. For over 30 years the alumina industry has enjoyed total freedom from green displeasure and support from conservation bodies - including the Environmental Protection Authority. None of the standard features of a protest campaign against logging, for example, have ever been seen. There are no protest camps in the bush. No students or yuppy celebrities are chained to trees. Mining equipment has not been vandalised, ore trains have not been derailed, haul roads blockaded or port facilities bombed (all features of the campaign against woodchipping). There are there no marches on parliament, no orchestrated campaigns of letters to the paper and call-ins to the talk-back stations. Senator Bob Brown does not appear to have voiced the merest concern. The WA Greens Party has no policy about bauxite mining in the jarrah forest. They seek to prohibit mining and exploration in national parks, wilderness areas and conservation reserves, but do not extend this policy to State Forests. Nor has Janet Woollard (who was elected to the WA Parliament representing a Save-the-Forests party) taken any position on bauxite mining in the jarrah forest. Even the ABC’s Four Corners has shown no interest. Normally they would find irresistible a story about destruction of Australian forests by big business, especially in an industry which is such a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and is American-owned. Instead they are down in Tasmania fulminating against timber production and plantations.

I am not anti-mining. However as a forester I wish the alumina industry would go elsewhere. Nor am I anti-Alcoa. I have always found them to be an efficient and clever organisation, and it is a pleasure to see the professional way in which they have approached their operational and research obligations. They have poured multi-millions of dollars into the WA community over the years, including generous donations to conservation groups, cash payments to government departments, grants to sporting bodies, sponsorship of the arts, dispensing free tree seedlings to farmers and funding academics in the universities.

The uncritical and universal acceptance of bauxite mining in the jarrah forest is disappointing, but not difficult to understand. The government clearly believes that the economic returns from bauxite mining and alumina refining justify the impact on the forest and other forest uses. The broader community has no understanding of what is going on, since the media is silent, and in any case there has never been any public affection for the jarrah forest in the way there has been for the more visually attractive karri forest.

There are two possible reasons why the environmentalists have chosen not to fight bauxite mining: (i) they have been bought off; or (ii) they have decided that it is a battle they cannot win. The latter is the most likely. The alumina industry well-established and prosperous, is fully supported by government agencies, and has a superb public relations machine. The environmentalists would be done over, and they know it. It would be different if 1000 ha of native forest each year were being destroyed for cattle grazing, timber plantations, or water resource development, all of which are easy targets - any protest campaign against them would attract strong media support, especially from the ABC.

Despite environmentalist and community apathy, my personal view is that there will come a time in the not-too-distant future when West Australians realise what has gone on, and the extent and cost of the ecological damage which has occurred. Then perhaps they will look back on the government, agency and NGO-supported destruction of the jarrah forest by bauxite mining as one of the greatest conservation blunders in our history.

Roger Underwood is a former General Manager of CALM in Western Australia, a regional and district manager, a research manager and bushfire specialist. Roger currently directs a consultancy practice with a focus on bushfire management. He lives in Perth, Western Australia.

Posted by jennifer at 10:18 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

July 30, 2007

Militant Islamic Group Joins Environmental Campaign in Indonesia

Abu Bakar Bashir, the well known spiritual leader of militant Islamic group, Jemaah Islamiya, has now joined forces with Indonesia's largest environmental organisation, WALHI, to protest against US-based mining corporation Newmont.

from http://richardness.org/blog/walhisstrangebedfellows.php

I've previously written about the Buyat Bay saga - where Richard Ness and Newmont were accused of having polluted a fishing village and its fringing coral reef with mine tailings.

You may remember that the story made the front page of The New York Times and that five miners, including Australian Phil Turner, were arrested and thrown into a Jakarta jail in September 2004. Richard’s son Eric runs a blog on the saga entitled ‘Watching My Dad’s Trial’.

When the claims of pollution where investigated by The World Health Organisation and CSIRO they were found to be bogus - a hoax. You can read a summary of the saga in my latest piece for the IPA Review entitled Politics and the Environment in Indonesia. There are copies of both reports’ at Eric’s website.

Richard Ness and Newmont were cleared of all charges in April this year, but the finding has been appealed.

In her journalism master's thesis entitled 'Tall Tailings: Truth and Friction in the Buyat Mining Scandal' Canadian Kendyl Salcito suggested some of the key protagonists in the saga are members of the Islamic organisation known as Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Muhammad Al Khaththah, the leader of the Indonesian chapter of Hizb-ut Tahrir, appears in the above photograph with Abu Bakar Bashir.

It is perhaps not surprising that militant environmental and Islamic organisations are joining forces, they both believe that issues of poverty and corruption are a consequence of capitalism and the exploitation of people and natural resources by large multinational corporations. As a consequence many Islamic and environmental activists want to close down mining in Indonesia – at least the most efficient, high tec, modern systems of mining. Interestingly they are supported by activists from countries like Australia and Canada – countries that continue to enjoy a high standard of living as a consequence, at least in part, of capitalism and mining.

Posted by jennifer at 08:31 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

July 11, 2007

Insights into Buyat Bay Controversy: ABC Documentary Now on the Net

Hi Jennifer,

On the 26th of June 2007, Jakarta-based reporter Mr. Geoff Thompson aired a program for ABC’s Foreign Correspondent on the Buyat Bay Case entitled “The Battle of Buyat Bay”.

This documentary has some revealing statements from NGO activists, and it gives a good insight into how the Buyat controversy originated and how it has persisted for this long.

The chronology of events presented in this documentary clearly shows that political interest and ideologies can easily overturn the scientific findings of reputable organizations like the World Health Organization and CSIRO in favor of pseudo-science. And the power of politics in Indonesia remains strong enough to throw innocent people into jail and disregard their human rights—reminding the viewers that the rule of law in Indonesia still has some way to go.

Read the rest of the blog entry here: http://www.richardness.org/link.php?link=7&id=69

Cheers,
Eric Ness

See Buyat Bay and watch the documentary on the internet at: http://www.richardness.org/presentations/thebattleofbuyatbay.php

Posted by jennifer at 03:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 24, 2007

Buyat Bay: On Australian TV Tuesday Evening

We have followed the 'Buyat Bay' saga at this blog beginning with my post entitled 'Did Newmont Do it?' in November 2005.

And I was in Indonesia in April to visit Buyat Bay and hear the verdict in the criminal trial.

Richard Ness and Newmont were cleared of all charges.

The ABC TV program 'Foreign Correspondent' is running a story on the Buyat Bay saga on Tuesday night. The promo says:

"The tiny inlet of Buyat Bay, has been a battleground with one of the world’s biggest mining companies, Newmont, facing monumental lawsuits from environmental groups, activists, and most importantly the Indonesian government itself.

Newmont has been accused of poisoning an entire community through the discharge of its mining waste into the bay. Water samples taken by Indonesian police indicated massive levels of mercury and arsenic were to be found in Buyat Bay but other tests including those conducted by Australia’s CSIRO found the bay to be clean.

At the centre of these accusations stands Richard Ness, the executive director of Newmont’s Indonesian operations. For the past two years he has been dragged through the courts, and if convicted of the criminal charges brought against him he faces three years in jail.

But Buyat Bay is not what it appears to be, and recent events have exposed serious implications for foreign investors who venture into Indonesia.

Jakarta-based correspondent Geoff Thompson travelled to North Sulawesi to try and discover whether Buyat Bay is an environmental disaster?"

You can read more about Richard Ness at this blog here: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/001697.html

I am writing a book on the saga.

Posted by jennifer at 08:28 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

May 20, 2007

New York Times to Defend Indonesian Mining Lawsuit

"Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The New York Times said Thursday it would "vigorously" defend legal action against the newspaper lodged this week in an Indonesian court by [Richard Ness] an executive of the US mining giant Newmont...

"Over the past few years, The Times has devoted significant resources to covering the social, political and environmental impact of large-scale mining by Newmont and other companies around the world," it said in a statement sent to AFP.

"We think this is an important global story for our readers, and our coverage of Newmont has been fair and accurate. We plan to defend the suit vigorously," it said.

Read the complete article here: http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/5/18/new-york-times-to-defend-indonesian-mining-lawsuit/

I haven't seen The New York Times acknowledge the law suit in its own paper - yet?

Posted by jennifer at 01:00 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 15, 2007

Richard Ness to Sue New York Times Journalist

"Today, May 15, at 11:00 am in the District Court of Central Jakarta, Dad’s Legal Counsels filed a civil claim against Jane Perlez and the New York Times Company. While talking to my Dad [Richard Ness] yesterday, I asked what prompted him to take this legal action. His response was simple:

“I have watched people in the Buyat community have their livelihoods destroyed. I have seen my friends and colleagues humiliated, questioned and detained by the police, while their wives and children were scared and embarrassed. I have seen my wife and family impacted by all the negative publicity. When I was summoned by the police who intended to arrest me, I had to reassure my wife and tell her, “Honey you have to trust me, I will be back home at some point and rest assured that we have done nothing wrong, we need to face the problem, be strong and we will get through this because truth is on our side”.

I have been accused of harming and causing the death of children, of polluting a bay by my inaction and of causing the devastation of an entire community. While in reality, I and my people had not done any wrong, the waters of Buyat bay were not polluted – in fact the criminal case brought out the facts that the Buyat waters are pristine, the fish in the bay are excellent and abundant, and the people of the region were not harmed by our operations. Yes, it did take 33 months to get the first court ruling in our favor but it’s not over yet. Over the past two and a half years we were reacting and responding to the unfair accusations leveled against us but it may now be our turn to take some action”

Read the rest of the blog post by Eric Ness here: http://www.richardness.org/link.php?link=2&id=69

And here's a picture of me snorkling at the beautiful Buyat bay a month or so ago.

I am writing a book on the saga - on the campaign to jail Richard Ness.

Posted by jennifer at 04:42 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

May 08, 2007

Richard Ness and Newmont Acquitted, But Indonesian Government Appeals

I was recently in Indonesia to hear the verdict in the criminal trial of Richard Ness, an American gold miner, accused of knowingly polluting Buyat Bay, its fringing coral reefs and local villagers, with mercury and arsenic.

On the morning of the verdict, it was rumoured there would be 10,000 demonstrators, that effigies of Ness and the chief judge would be burnt, that an army platoon was on stand-by, and that the court house could be bombed.

The panel of five judges found Richard Ness not guilty on all charges. To quote from his son Eric’s blog:

“The final ruling is unambiguous because it is based primarily on substance and technical facts. When I sat in the court and listened to the ruling I noted that each of the prosecution’s evidence was rejected soundly and decisively. The Judges had applied the most objective scientific knowledge and techniques to develop their argument for each rejection of prosecution’s claim.

… It must be stated that the court’s decision was not just a simple victory where my Dad and Newmont were acquitted of any wrongdoing but the judgment had a list of more than 50 points outlining why these allegations were not only unfounded but also it categorically stated that no environmental crime was committed in Buyat by Newmont. The decision was a slam dunk in all respects yet some are still trying to spin it as a victory by technicality.”

After the reading of the verdict Richard Ness refused to be ushered out of the court room by the back door. Instead, flanked by his two sons, he descended from the court house into a throng of angry demonstrators and proudly walked up the busy boulevard.

Incredibly the Ministry of Environment is now appealling the decision.

A problem for the Indonesian government is that environmental activists, working with their friends in the local and international media, ran a convincing campaign. There had already been a successful trial by media with Ness portrayed as guilty.

Newmont has just issued a press release:

"JAKARTA, Indonesia, May 7, 2007 – An Indonesian court ruled on 24 April 2007 that PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (PTNMR), a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation, and its President Director Richard Ness are acquitted of all criminal charges of pollution and regulatory violations.

Ruling on evidence presented during the 21-month trial, one of the longest criminal proceedings in Indonesian history, the court held that Buyat Bay is not polluted. It further found, as PTNMR contended, that the company was in compliance with all regulations and permits during its eight years of operations from 1996 to 2004. However, the prosecutions filed an appeal in Manado Court today (7 May 2007).

Luhut MP. Pangaribuan, PTNMR legal team: “Considering that the Defendants have been acquitted of all Public Prosecutors’ indictments, then according to Article 67 and Article 244 from the Law on Criminal Procedure, an appeal is not permissible if there is a complete acquittal. Therefore, I hope that this appeal will be immediately rejected as not in accordance with the law”.

The exact wordings in the Law on Criminal Procedure are as follows:

Article 67: A defendant or public prosecutor shall have the right to appeal against a decision of a court of first instance except against a decision of acquittal, a dismissal of all charges related to a matter of inappropriate application of law and a court decision under express proceeding.

Article 244: The defendant or the public prosecutor may file a request for an examination of an appeal to the Supreme Court against a decision on a criminal case rendered at the final instance by a court other than the Supreme Court, except with regard to an acquittal.

“It seems that the Government wants to take us back to court one more time, even though the court ruled that the bay is not polluted and the case should have not have been in criminal court to start with. To my understanding, to appeal on a full acquittal is not only against the law; it sends the signal that the Government does not believe their own courts decision. To say I am disappointed with the Government’s decision is an understatement", said Richard Ness.

The other reason that the appeal is not necessary is that the Government of Indonesia and PTNMR have established the independent scientific panel under the Goodwill Agreement that will monitor and report on Buyat Bay for almost another decade. Newmont Vice President of Asia Operations, Robert Gallagher, “We are confident that it will confirm that there is no pollution in Buyat Bay. If anyone has any residual concern in regard to the condition of Buyat Bay, let that concern be addressed by pure science”.

More information about the case can be found at www.BuyatBayFacts.com along with a chronology of events at http://www.buyatbayfacts.com/what_happened/timeline.aspx.

End of press release from Newmont.

I am writing a book on the saga.

Posted by jennifer at 08:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 01, 2007

Verdict on Richard Ness Postponed

The verdict in the high-profile trial of Richard Ness was to be handed-down this Wednesday, 4th April, in Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has now been postponed with Chief Judge Ridwan Damanik telling Reuters the judges need more time to draw up the verdict.

Mr Ness, President-Director of Newmont Minahasa Raya which operated a gold mine at Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi, is accused of knowingly polluting the bay.

"It takes time to compile opinion from five judges into a verdict. But I think the verdict can be read out on April 18," said Chief Judge Damanik.

"The case is sensitive because we are trying foreign parties. We don't want to rush things as it could become a problem," he added.

The prosecution has relied on evidence from the Indonesian National Police with an initial water quality sample, processed in an uncertified laboratory, showing high levels of mercury and arsenic.

Duplicate samples (simultaneously collected) which Newmont had tested in an independent laboratory found all levels of heavy metals within international standards.

Other scientific studies have shown the waters of Buyat Bay to be unpolluted including studies by the CSIRO and medical and toxicological studies by the World Health Organization and the Minamata Institute of Japan have found no evidence of mercury or arsenic poisoning in local villagers.

Nevertheless, the perception is that Mr Ness is guilty with the New York Times publishing a front page story on 8th September 2004 falsely implicating the gold mine in the poisoning of local villagers.

In the Indonesian judicial system a defendant can make recommendations. At the end of his statement of defense, Richard Ness requested that in the final ruling the courts order an investigation, and if sufficient evidence is established, the prosecution of Rignolda Jamaludin, Jane Pangemanan and Raja Siregar for what he described as the “Buyat Hoax". He also asked the investigation of the members of the Ministry of Environments “Technical Team” who, he claims, under the guidance of Masnellyarti Hilman willfully and knowingly manipulated data and referenced non existing regulations to deceive the pubic by creating the image that a village needed to be relocated because of pollution when in fact no pollution existed.

May truth and justice prevail when the verdict is eventually handed-down.

Posted by jennifer at 02:14 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

February 01, 2007

What A Wahli!

Indonesian blogger, Ong Hock Chuan, has taken up the case for Richard Ness, an American mining executive falsely accused by environmental NGO's of deliberately polluting Buyat Bay in northern Sulawesi.

In a recent post Ong invited Wahli, the Indonesian arm of Friend's of the Earth and the group who's false accusations led to the arrest of Ness, to put their case at his blog.

This was their response:

“I’ve read your blog and my oppinion is there’s nothing we (Walhi) could discuss further about such topic you’ve thrown on your blog since you started it without critical question about ‘how businesses and NGOs can work together to protect and improve the environment’ like you said in your email below. i don’t know what your intention here but we refuse to answer your call to put our organization in such ‘brutal’ discussion in your blog."

I don't know, I reckon Ong's blog would be much less brutal than an Indonesian jail... where Whali want to send Richard Ness.

Read the complete blog post here: http://theunspunblog.com/2007/01/31/australias-watching-where-is-walhi-newmont-and-the-other-players/

------------------------------------
To read more about Richard Ness, click here and for more background on the trial read Eric's blog, click here. If you want to know who Eric is, click here.

Posted by jennifer at 11:05 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

January 29, 2007

Did Newmont Do It? (Continued …)

I met Richard Ness, the head of a gold mining company Newmont Minahasa Raya, through this blog.

I posted a piece here in November 2005 asking the question: Did Newmont Do It?

I was referring to Buyat Bay in northern Sulawesi, Indonesia, and allegations that the beautiful bay had been polluted by mine tailings.

About a year after I posted the piece Richard emailed me, including comment that: “What has come out from court ordered resampling of the bay is that the Waters of Buyat are cleaner than on average, the Atlantic, Pacific and English Channel.”

Last week Richard Ness was in court again pleading his innocence. He opened his 13 hour testimony in Manado, Indonesia, with comment that:

“I beg the court’s indulgence if at some points throughout this document that my writing depicts some anger, frustration, pity, and in some cases even contempt for some of the issues raised. I hope that the Honorable Panel of Judges can understand that these expressions of emotion are not directed at this court or the Honorable Panel of Judges, but rather at the subject matter or the individuals under discussion.

This Panel of Judges has been searching for the truth and I express my respect
to the Honorable Panel for your patience and the work they have undertaken
towards separating reality from pretense and facts from illusions. I have to
state that I have been treated very fairly before this court in an effort to find the
real truth and while the trial can be deemed fair, the investigation, examination,
indictment and the charges against me are certainly not fair or justified!

The allegation that Buyat Bay is polluted is a sham, and only supported by
falsehood and error.

There were several opportunities to correct this travesty before the indictment was issued, but each time the opportunity was lost. If the law had been followed from the beginning, there would never have been an indictment; if the Prosecution had examined the evidence, there would have never been charges or a sentencing request and I would not have needed to write this pledoi [testimonial].

Although one can reflect back on what could have been but the reality is I am seated before this court, defending myself of a crime that never occurred.”

[Read the complete transcript by clicking here]

Richard Ness claims there is no evidence to suggest Buyat Bay was ever polluted by mine tailing from Newmont Minhasa Raya and that the case against him is a fabrication orchestrated by environmental NGOs supported by naïve western journalists including New York Times journalist Jane Perlez.

The same day the New York Times published its feature by Ms Perlez, the World Health Organisation published a detailed technical report which concluded that Buyat Bay was not contaminated by mercury or cyanide and that levels of mercury among villagers were not high enough to cause poisoning and that the health effect of mercury and cyanide poisoning were not observed among Buyat Bay villagers.

This was the first of several reports, including a detailed report by Australia’s CSIRO and another by the Indonesian Ministry of Environment, which directly contradicted an initial Indonesian police report and found the bay to be unpolluted.

Richard’s testimony brings to a close what has been a long and acrimonious trial. A judgment is expected within the month.

Here are some links to recent media reports:

PT Newmont Boss Begins Defence in Indonesia
Resource Investor - Herndon,VA,USA
St. LOUIS (ResourceInvestor.com) -- Newmont executive Richard Ness, on trial in Indonesia for allegedly polluting Buyat Bay, read his ‘pledoi’ to the court ... http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=28339

INDONESIA: Indonesia Newmont boss says no complaints on mining
CorpWatch.org - Oakland,CA,USA
PT Newmont Minahasa Raya, which operated a gold mine in North Sulawesi province, and its president director Richard Ness face charges over allegations the ...
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14317

Newmont Indonesia boss rejects pollution charges
Reuters AlertNet - London,England,UK
PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR), which once operated in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province, and its president director Richard Ness face charges over ... http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/JAK52760.htm

Indonesian blogger, Ong Hock Chuan, invites Walhi, one of the NGOs that launched the initial attack against Richard Ness, to explain how “activist NGOs on the whole make Indonesia a better or worse place to live and do business”: http://theunspunblog.com/2007/01/25/open-invitation-to-businesses-and-indonesian-ngos-to-respond/#comment-6058

Richard’s son Eric has commented at his blog that: The actions of some of the NGOs portrayed in this documentary (Mine Your Own Business) parallels my Dad’s experience in this Buyat Bay case. People like Rignolda and Raja Siregar have utilized well-planned misinformation campaigns and lies in the name of environmentalism. Dr. Jane Pangemanan did not hesitate to misrepresent the illnesses in the Buyat Bay community as mercury poisoning. Such allegations were decisively disproved by the WHO, CSIRO and other governmental reports. These individuals have been discredited now in the court. But the salient question is: will these NGOs resort to these methods again? I plan to continue this debate further in the weeks to come. The time has come for NGOs to become more thoughtful, and more truthful in their campaigns. Read more:
http://richardness.org/blog/buyatbayandngoaccountability.php

And for more information on Richard Ness: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/001697.html .

Posted by jennifer at 11:21 PM | Comments (28) | TrackBack

December 06, 2006

New Picture Book on Buyat Bay

Buyat Bay on the Island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, is perhaps best known as the place where Canadian mining giant Newmont dumped tailing from a gold mine allegedly polluting the bay and poisioning the local villagers.

Increasingly it appears the poisonings were a fabrication. I summarized the allegations brought against the company's President Richard Ness and against the mining company in a recent piece for On Line Opinion entitled 'The Campaign Against Mining'.

A little blue fish swimming in Buyat Bay.

Several senior mining executives were thrown in jail, accused of deliberately poisoning the bay. Once out of jail one of them set about photographing the corals and associated biodiversity of Buyat Bay. A book in Indonesian was published earlier in the year. Now there is an english version and Richard Ness's son has had it uploaded to his website.

Here's a note from Eric:

"A book entitled An Underwater Guide To Buyat Bay and Surrounding Areas North Sulawesi was just published by the South Minahasa & North Sulawesi Tourism Office. I got permission to post the entire book on the site. I would like to invite you to take a look at this because one, the photography is extremely beautiful showing a wide variety of marine life and two, I see this as additional evidence of how ridiculous the charges are against my father.

This book was written by Jerry Kojansow, David Sompie, Laurentius Th. X Lalamentik, Msc and Djonline Emor, Msi. The beautiful photographs where provided by Jerry Kojansow and Robert Humberson.

The irony in this is that two of the authors, David Sompie and Jerry Konjansow – who I have partly dedicated this web site to - were two of Dad’s staff who were declared suspects and spent 32 day unjustly detained early on in the same cells with terrorist involved in the Australian Embassy bombing. Even after such treatment, these fine individuals still performed their civic duty (in collaboration with dedicated people from the marine department of the local University and the provincial government) doing their part in promoting tourism and sharing the natural beauty of Northern Sulawesi and Buyat Bay for all the world to see. They did not do so for money or personal fame, they did so to try and correct the damaged image caused by baseless allegations of pollution in what is truly a non-polluted pristine marine environment. It is the image of North Sulawesi that they are trying to preserve.

Check out the book: http://richardness.org/media/buyatbay/"

The photographs are spectacular. Once uploaded you can 'turn the page' by clicking on the top right corner of the image. Click here to get started.

Richard Ness was in court again yesterday. But I've no news as to how it all went. A final judgement is expected in January.

Posted by jennifer at 08:23 AM | Comments (10)

December 03, 2006

In Defence of Industrialisation and Mining: A Note from Jack Sturgess

During a career in the mining industry, I lived and worked in Australia, PNG, Canada and the US; I also worked for months at a time in New Zealand and South Africa and for weeks at a time in Alaska, Mexico and Indonesia. I only had to move around with my eyes open to see that people living in industrialised and mineral-intensive communities enjoyed better health and welfare, more individual freedom and greater opportunity for personal development than those in non-industrialised, less mineral intensive communities.

However the debate on the value of mineral-intensive industrialisation seems to have remained at a tactical level, conducted in terms of flora and fauna versus jobs and tax revenue. Flora and fauna have won. The two vital strategic drivers of human behaviour are not flora and fauna; they are survival and caring for the young. These drivers are conveniently quantified as life expectancy and infant mortality rate (IMR). The intrinsic civilising value of industrialisation and mineral use is found not in tactical economic factors but rather in the beneficial strategic contribution they make to reducing the rate of infant mortality and increasing life expectancy.

My reference is "The State Of The World's Children", an annual publication of the United Nations Children’s Fund. The table below is an extract from Table 1 in the 2005 issue.

I have concentrated on IMR because it is quantifiable and “bulletproof”; every rational person agrees that a high IMR is bad and a low one is good.

A low infant mortality rate does not happen without industrialisation.

Industrialisation does not happen without a reliable supply of metals and energy minerals.

The connection is also transparently causal. Industrialisation has been driven by electricity for the last 100 years. The generation, transmission and distribution of electrical power are essential to industrialisation and social development. Copper, aluminium, steel, energy minerals and concrete are required in large amounts to provide these services. It is also self-evident that the life-sustaining benefits of industrialisation require intensive mineral use, such benefits as a reliable supply of food and water, hot water, refrigeration, hygienic waste disposal and modern medical facilities. Widespread access to such facilities, a privilege available only to industrialised communities, requires large amounts of metals and other minerals.

A lower IMR has not been restricted to the industrialised (wealthy) countries. Since 1960 the infant mortality rate has fallen by 84% in the industrialised countries, 42% in the least developed countries and 55% in the whole world. During this interval the population of the least developed countries has increased almost 200%, that of the industrialised countries 25%. Less developed countries derive "slipstream" benefits from the more industrialised countries in the form of trade, technology transfer, foreign investment and aid in various forms including family planning and education assistance, especially the education of girls and women.

An encouraging aspect of the slipstream effect is that countries today are achieving a reduction in the rate of infant mortality with a lower degree of mineral intensity than was required in previous decades. For example, Argentina in 2003 had an IMR of 19 and a copper use of 1.2 kg per head. The Netherlands in 1960 had a similar IMR but with a copper use per head of 2.8 kg. This phenomenon is widespread and persistent.

The potential sources of extra minerals are numerous. The crust of the Earth is 30km to 45 km thick under the continents. Almost all metal production to date has been extracted from the top one kilometre. Much remains to be found and extracted below this. Extensive resources also will be recovered from more accessible deposits in South America, Central Asia, Africa and elsewhere. Mineralised nodules on the sea floor might also be recovered. Extensive coal and gas reserves exist currently; exploration in deeper water will discover more oil and gas and increasing prices will increase oil reserves.

Jack Sturgess is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

---------------------------
Thanks Jack for sharing your thoughts and analysis with us.

Posted by jennifer at 06:40 PM | Comments (84) | TrackBack

November 28, 2006

All The Best To Richard Ness

Last week the US President, George Bush, visited Indonesia to discuss amongst other things "investment".

No doubt some radical environmentalists along with some Islamic fundamentalists don’t want foreign investment in Indonesia. Like the activists in the new documentary 'Mine Your Own Business' they would perhaps like the many Indonesians still living a subsistence existence to remain “happy peasants”.

Activists are also behind the campaign to jail Richard Ness.

There are miners who have done the wrong thing and impacted the Indonesian environment. Just last week, more deaths were reported from the mud flow in East Java associated with gas exploration by Santos.

But to quote Andrew Wilson, president director of Australia’s BHP Billiton-Indonesia, in the case of Richard Ness,

“This is Indonesia at its worst in terms of picking the wrong guy and saying: you are a criminal. You couldn’t get a person who has given more back to Indonesia. He’s community oriented. He looks for the long-term good rather than taking short cuts.”

Then last week, following the visit by George Bush, the US Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe was reported in the Jakarta Post to have commented:

“A lack of legal certainty remained a major problem for Indonesia in attracting foreign investment, pointing to the prosecution of Newmont Minahasa Raya president director Richard Ness, an American, who is facing three years imprisonment if convicted in a North Sulawesi court of causing pollution, as setting a bad example.

"What we want is Indonesia to become a competitive place ... one thing you don't do ... is bring court cases against somebody where you don't have any evidence. This is exactly what has happened in the Ness case.”

I recently summarized the case against Richard Ness in a piece for On Line Opinion entitled 'The Campaign To Stop Mining':

"New York Times journalist Jane Perlez championed the case for the activists in a feature “Spurred by Illness, Indonesians Lash Out at US Mining Giant” in which she suggested the waters of Buyat Bay had been polluted by the gold mine with villagers developing “strange rashes and bumps”.

The article relied heavily on an interview with a member of a team of public health doctors flown in to investigate. Dr Jane Pangemanan was quoted claiming symptoms exhibited by the local villagers were consistent with mercury and arsenic poisoning.

Another key accusation in the New York Times article is that Newmont Mining was illegally and inappropriately disposing of the mines tailings into Buyat Bay and a police report showed mercury contamination.

…The same day the New York Times published its feature, the World Health Organisation published a detailed technical report (pdf 4.01MB) which concluded that Buyat Bay was not contaminated by mercury or cyanide and that levels of mercury among villagers were not high enough to cause poisoning and that the health effect of mercury and cyanide poisoning were not observed among Buyat Bay villagers.

This was the first of several reports, including a detailed report by Australia’s CSIRO and another by the Indonesian Ministry of Environment, which directly contradicted the Indonesian police report and found the bay to be unpolluted.

Of the six executives initially incarcerated, only the president of Newmont Mining in Indonesia, Richard Ness, was eventually charged. His son, Eric Ness, established a website dedicated to the trial, and in October last year reported that under cross examination, Dr Jane Pangemanan denied she ever told the New York Times that the illnesses observed in the villagers were caused by arsenic or mercury poisoning.”

On 10th November as part of the post trial phase the prosecution asked the court impose a three-year jail term on Richard Ness.

Richard Ness has responded with comment that,

“These ridiculous recommendations by the JPU make a complete mockery of the legal system. It seems like whoever wrote these charges never sat in the courtroom, or does not understand the substance of the overriding evidence that Buyat Bay is not polluted. For one, the prosecutors charged us for not filing environmental reports since 2002 while in fact, their own witness from the Ministry of Environment, Sigit Reliantoro, testified that he evaluated completed sets of reports up to 2004.

"With such unfair, unsubstantiated claims against innocent parties, this is yet another roadblock to the government’s efforts to attract much needed investments back to the country, investments that will create jobs and improve the quality of life. I have lived in this country for 30 years, love its people and have adopted many of its ways but this is a profound travesty and a disappointment to all who hope for a society based on the rule of law.”

It seemed incredible to me that the case is proceeding at all. Then again, as Phelim McAleer documents in 'Mine Your Own Business', unsubstantiated accusations from environmentalists can appear compelling. Their claims may be false, but they command the moral high ground. Yet sadly in the end, by hindering or stopping development and investment, they contribute to a vicious cycle that condemns the world’s poorest to a life of subsistence.

Richard Ness will be back in court next week on Tuesday 5 th December. The final judgment is likely to be handed down some time in January.

This trial is about more than the destiny of one man, it represents the struggle between development and poverty - the struggle between opportunity and radical environmentalism.

I have never met Richard Ness. But I have got to know him a little through this blog and through his son Eric who has a blog dedicated to his Dad’s trial.

Like many readers of this blog, Richard has a keen interest in the environment and like some of us is a collector of wildlife photographs.

On behalf of the many readers and contributors to this blog, I wish Richard Ness all the best for next Tuesday.

"Using an old cream separator with local villagers to try see if we could increase the production of coconut oil," Richard Ness, Buyat Bay in Indonesia.

Posted by jennifer at 06:37 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

November 24, 2006

Mine Your Own Ignorance

I'm in Perth at the moment, at the end of the Australian tour of a new documentary 'Mine Your Own Business'. In the film, British journalist Phelim McAleer meets up with an unemployed 23-year-old Romanian miner Gheorge Lucian and together they explore a mine site in Rosia Montana before travelling together to Madagascar and Chile where environmental campaigining by western activists has prevented other mines going ahead. An underlying theme is that misguided environmental activism has stopped mining projects that would have brought jobs and opportunity to impoverished communities.

The film, produced by New Bera media in conjunction with the Moving Picture Institute in New York (a not for profit dedicated to advancing liberty through the medium of film), will go to film festivals next year and then hopefully into the cinemas. But this last week the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) sponsored the film's Australian preview with one-off screenings in Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney and Perth.

After each screening there has been time for questions and discussion with Phelim and also Ann McElhinney, his partner and the film's executive producer. In every city there have been some angry environmentalists in the audience letting us know that they disapproved of the documentary.

In Sydney a woman said that mining was a 200 year old technology that should be abandoned. Phelim followed up with comment that it was actually atleast a 2,000 year old activity and that mining technologies had changed and improved dramatically including over the last 20 years.

Ann followed on with comment that any one who lives in Sydney and is against mining is "living a lie". She explained how mining provides the infrastructure and energy that we all use everyday.

Was the woman, who clearly stated as part of the discussion that she was "against mining", living a lie or plain ignorant?

I know educated Australian women who are against logging, but use paper. I know women who are against mining, but couldn't live without their gold jewellery. I know women who are against irrigation but expect an abundance of fruits, vegetables and affordable wine.

While in Sydney Phelim McAleer caught a bus, watched a movie and logged onto the internet. All activities that couldn't happen without mining.

Here's Phelim in front of the Sydney Harbor Bridge - another product of mining.

Posted by jennifer at 09:11 AM | Comments (39) | TrackBack

November 22, 2006

The Story of Wielangta: How Environmentalists Mistake 'A Timber Town That Disappeared' for Pristine Wilderness

There is a lot of forest in Tasmania.

In the south east of the island, there was once a thriving timber town known as Wielangta. In its heyday it had a general store, bakery, blacksmiths’ shops, a school and of course several saw mills.

Wielangta was ravaged by bushfires in the 1920s and abandoned in 1928.

I visited the area yesterday with Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney – the Irish born producers of Mine Your Own Business.

All we saw was forest. The town has disappeared.

This is some of the beautiful blue gum forest we saw along the Wielangta forest drive.

The forest has re-grown and like most forest in Tasmania is now falsely considered pristine wilderness. But within the forest there is a rusted boiler and decaying tramlines -- all that remains of the once thriving timber town known as Wielangta.

Interestingly, according to the website dedicated to Bob Brown’s fight to stop logging in Wielangta forest, this forest is described as “the most untouced and secluded area within 50 km of the Hobart CBD. It is a tiny fragment of the complex biodiversity here at the end of the last Ice Age.”

Wielangta forest is home to the swift parrot, wedge-tailed eagle and broad toothed stag beetle.

Parts of the forest have been cleared felled and then burnt by timber workers since European settlement. And the forest has always regrown.

Here's Phelim in a recently burnt coup, perhaps looking for the town that disappeared?

Here's Phelim perhaps looking for the ancient Wielangta (broad toothed) stag beetle.

----------------------------

Thanks to Alan Ashbarry for taking us to Wielangta and for organizing the Tasmanian showing of Mine Your Own Business. Following the screening last night there was much comment over drinks, about how relevant the film is to Tasmanian timber communities struggling to survive against environmentalism. The film will be screened tonight (Wednesday night) in Sydney and tomorrow (Thursday night) in Perth. For more information visit http://ipa.org.au/events/event_detail.asp?eventid=120 .

Posted by jennifer at 05:42 AM | Comments (55) | TrackBack

November 19, 2006

Miranda Devine on 'Mine Your Own Business'

It is generally assumed that mining companies are bad and green groups are good. This general impression is so well entrenched within western civilization that many environmental activists have got used to being able to tell stories about mining, logging, fishing and farming operations that are misleading, exaggerated or simply wrong. They have got used to professional journalists just repeating their propaganda.

Of course, not all environmentalists mislead, just like not all mining companies are bad. But gee it can be hard getting people to accept this. Most environmentalists are seen as angels with absolutely no vested interests.

It can also be hard getting people to understand that "making poverty history" is about more than attending a rock concert or making a donation. Development and industry are real solutions to poverty and they often involve some environmental harm. Miranda Devine makes some comment on this issue and also gives the new documentary 'Mine Your Own Business' a plug in her column in today's Sydney Morning Herald:

"AT U2's Sydney concerts last week, Bono urged the audience to text their names to a Make Poverty History phone number. Later he flashed the names on a big screen and sent a thank you text to all those mobile phones in Telstra Stadium. As an act of charity it doesn't come much easier, unless you count wearing wristbands.

This is not to sneer at Bono for raising consciousness of the world's poor, or his audience for making a gesture.

But as protesters and green activists gather in Melbourne this weekend to lay the usual blame for poverty on the greed of developed nations, a powerful new documentary shines light on a different villain.

Mine Your Own Business, which opens this week, shows that the "powerful group telling the world's poor how to live, how to work, even how to think" are not the world leaders gathered in Melbourne. They're not even wealthy multinational corporations, but wealthy multinational environment groups such as Greenpeace.

Read the complete article here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/make-poverty-history-first-by-getting-rid-of-the-greens/2006/11/18/1163266827937.html

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For information on when and where the documentary is screening this week in Australia visit: www.ipa.org.au

Posted by jennifer at 12:24 PM | Comments (99) | TrackBack

November 10, 2006

Scientific Facts Irrelevant: A Note from Eric Ness

Hi Jennifer,

I’m sure you have heard the old saying that rules are made to be broken. In most instances this is a relatively harmless idea if you are talking about a group of middle school children who fail to follow the instructions of their English teacher—at worst you might get a bunch of kids who can’t write well. However, what happens if the custodians of law in a country start to follow the same maxim? Unfortunately, you might get the Buyat case.

A justice system can fail in many ways. For instance, if a real criminal is not prosecuted or a criminal gets away with a disproportionately lenient sentence. But what happens when you are talking about a justice system that deliberately targeted an innocent man with the single minded determination to basically destroy his life, in this situation you are not talking about a justice system at all. However, this seems to be the situation exemplified by my Dad’s ongoing legal battles in Indonesia.

A friend of mine once said that you start having human rights issues when you stop following the rule of law. In the same tone it becomes pointless to continue talking about scientific facts because they have been made irrelevant in the absence of rule of law. As the Buyat case has proceeded it has truly revealed the personality of the justice system and we find ourselves facing some of these concerns.

Please read the rest of the blog entry at:

http://richardness.org/blog/ruleoflaworlawlessnessofrulers.php

Thanks,
Eric

Posted by jennifer at 03:35 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

November 09, 2006

Mine Your Own Business, But Don't Miss the Movie

Mine Your Own Business is a powerful film about the hopes of people living in poverty and about misguided environmentalism.

Directed by former Financial Times journalist Phelim McAleer, Mine Your Own Business exposes the motivations of those attempting to stop economic development in the name of the environment.

The Institute of Public Affairs will be screening Mine Your Own Business at the following locations

Melbourne, 20 November 2006
Arthur Streeton Auditorium, Sofitel Melbourne, 25 Collins Street.

Hobart, 21 November 2006
Old Woolstore Theatrette, 1 Macquarie Street.

Sydney, 22 November 2006
Dendy Opera Quays, Shop 9, 2 East Circular Quay.

Perth, 23 November 2006
Cinema Paradiso, 164 James St, Northbridge.

Screenings at all venues begin at 6pm. The film will be followed by a discussion with Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney. $10 donations welcome. Payment can be made at the door.

To register contact Georgina Hamilton on 03 9600 4744 or ghamilton@ipa.org.au

For more information on the film click here: http://www.mineyourownbusiness.org/index.htm
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Update 10th November

Following comments (see below) quering the motivations of Phelim McAleer in making the movie I'm updating this blog post with profiles of the films directors and producers:

Ann McElhinney

Ann McElhinney is a Fellow of the Moving Picture Institute, a not for profit dedicated to advancing liberty through the medium of film (thempi.org). She is also is a journalist, broadcaster and producer and joint managing director of New Bera Media, an independent documentary production company.

Ann McElhinney directed and produced “Mine Your Own Business” (2006).She is a co-producer and presenter of “The Search for Tristan’s Mum” (2005) an hour long documentary for RTE. The documentary
featured the case of Tristan Dowse, who was adopted by an Irish couple at birth and then abandoned in an Indonesian orphanage two years later. Tristan’s plight provoked a wave of sympathy and outrage in Ireland and “The Search for Tristan’s Mum” followed journalist Ann McElhinney in a search to find his natural mother in Indonesia.

As a result of McElhinney’s undercover investigations into Tristan’s case where she posed as a woman hoping to adopt she revealed an illegal baby selling ring. Further investigations by the Indonesian police saw the leaders
of the ring sentenced to nine and eight years in prison.

“The Search for Tristan’s Mum” was selected by fellow industry professionals from across the globe and showcased at Input 2006 in Taiwan in May 2006.

McElhinney was an Assistant Producer on the BBC Spotlight documentary “Romanian Twins” (2004) and featured
in CBC’s “Return to Sender” (2005) as the investigative reporter who discovered the story of Alexandra
Austin. McElhinney also worked with CBC as an associate producer and researcher on “Return to Sender”. Previously McElhinney worked as a journalist with the BBC, Irish Times, RTE, Sunday Times and Sunday Tribune.

She has regularly contributed reports and analysis for RTE’s Six One News, Morning Ireland and World Report and has been a regular contributor to Orla Barry’s show on Newstalk 106 and Today FM’s The Last Word show.

Phelim McAleer

Phelim McAleer is a Fellow of the Moving Picture Institute, a New York-based non-profit that identifies
and nurtures promising filmmakers who are committed to protecting and sustaining a free and prosperous society (www.thempi.org). He is also the joint managing director of New Bera Media, an independent documentary production company. McAleer directed, produced and wrote “Mine Your Own Business” (2006) the world’s first anti-environmentalist documentary. The documentary hacks away at the cozy image of environmentalists as well-meaning, harmless activists. He was also an Associate

Producer, second unit director and researcher on the documentary “Return to Sender” which aired on Canada’s CBC in February 2005.

From 2000 to 2003 he was the Romania/Bulgaria Correspondent for the Financial Times. He has also written for The Economist from the region. Previously from 1998 to 2000, he worked for the UK Sunday Times in their Dublin office.

McAleer started his career as a journalist working for a local newspaper in Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh known as Bandit country for the ferocity of the IRA campaign in the area. He then moved to the Irish News in Belfast. At the Irish News, Northern Ireland’s largest selling daily newspaper worked as a journalist covering the Northern Ireland troubles and peace process before becoming night editor.

He devised and co-produced “The Search for Tristan’s Mum” which was broadcast on RTE 1, the Irish State television station, in 2005. It featured the case of Tristan Dowse, who was adopted by an Irish couple at birth and then abandoned in an Indonesian orphanage two years later.

The Search for Tristan’s Mum was selected for and shown at Input 2006, a showcase for the best programs
from national public broadcasters from around the world, the programs was selected by fellow industry professionals and showcased at Input 2006 in Taiwan in May.

He has been a regular contributor to RTE and BBC radio and television.

Posted by jennifer at 10:55 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

October 31, 2006

Hoping for Justice in Indonesia

Tommy Suharto, the eldest son of a former Indonesian President, was released from jail today having served only part of a very lenient jail term after being found guilty of organising the successful murder of a Supreme Court Judge.

The Suharto trial and early prison release casts some doubt over the integrity of the Indonesian justice system.

A reader of this blog, Richard Ness, is currently on trial in Indonesia for a crime that never happened.

I hope he gets a fair trial.

But it doesn't bode well when an Indonesian newspaper publishes an article with the heading 'Put Ness in Jail' explaining that the Attorney General's office is already convinced Ness is guilty and that the public prosecutors can expect promotions.

Blogger Declan Butler has followed and reported on the trial of Bulgarian aid workers in prison in Libya and how the local justice system has refused to accept evidence showing the foreigners to be innocent. In a recent blog post Butler suggests their best hope is for the international community to maintain an interest in the trial.

Richard's son Eric has a blog dedicated to his father's trial at www.richardness.org.

Posted by jennifer at 02:12 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

October 15, 2006

Drilling for Platinum and Nickel: A Note from Louis Hissink

Louis Hissink is drilling at Thundelarra Exploration's Lamboo project located about 40 KM WSW of Halls Creek in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. His focus is exploration for platinum and nickel.

Louis sent the following note:

"The wet season is on us and the usual climatic signs have appeared - with rain already falling in some of the more remote areas. Another two months of the 'build-up' and if Halls Creek gets a good solid drenching from a cyclonic depression over the wet season, then it might replenish the underground water acquifer we the town relies on for its water supply. Seems the greenies and other do-gooders have put paid to any notion of building a small dam nearby for water catchment solutions. [Indeed, existing dams are being busted in parts of rural and regional Western Australia, click here for previous blog post on the issue.].

Oh there is a drought alright, but it's in the state parliaments where a serious drought of commonsense is evident. I can't write what the Western Australian Water Authority thinks of the Environment Protection Agency and its fellow travellers.

Lots of feral horses in the area, and dying from a lack of feed and water - sad to see, but that is reality up here.

Louis is the one on the right.

The drilling rig is a small Reverse Circulation (RC) machine which can bore holes to about 150 metres depth.

Principal drilling method uses a down-hole hammer that pulverises the rock into smaller bits, including dust, using high power air compressors. The sample from the hammer is pushed up the inside of the rod string (hence the term
reverse-circulation) through the inner pipes then via a sample hose into a sampling cyclone where equal volume samples (nominally 1 metre length times the hole area) are collected. These 1 metre samples are then split into 2 fractions,via a Jones splitter in which an aliquot of the 1 metre sample is collected for initial chemical analysis in a laboratory. The remainder of the sample is left in a green plastic mining bag next to the drilled hole for further work. Field assistants later take rock chip samples from each metre sample by seiving through a standard household kitchen sieve and stored in purpose built chip trays - durable plastic things with 20 small compartments.

These chips are studied by the geologist to record the rocks identified down the drilled hole and displayed as a geological log.

Constant volume samples are collected to eliminate the "sample-volume-variance" phenomena when dealing with geological samples, since the variation of any measurement of sample chemical composition depends on the volume of material collected. Unlike social science statistics in which the sample support is an individual human, or in the general physical sciences where objects such as billiard balls, coins, or other discrete objects, is the sample support and from which we note that N, the number of samples, is always an integer value, such objects do not exist in geology or the earth sciences and hence special emphasis is directed to ensuring that the sample-support is maintained, here by ensuring constant volume samples.

Mineral exploration generally involves developing hypotheses about where mineral deposits might be located in the accessible parts of the earth's crust, and initially tested by collected many inexpensive geochemical soil samples, and again special emphasis is directed to ensuring that sample-support is maintained, again by collecting equal volume samples of soil.

Chemical analysis of these samples are done and the data analysed geomathematically. Usually the samples are reported as metal assays as parts per million or billion, depending on the element, and are "intensive" variables. Because the sample support of data set is uniform, sample-volume-variance issues, as well as the pitfalls of applying statistical analyses to intensive variables are avoided, and that is another issue which won't be described here."

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Thanks for sending in the photograph and note.

Posted by jennifer at 08:44 PM | Comments (20)