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.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
I would also like to wish Richard the very best for next Tuesday. I greatly appreciate Richard´s wildlife images and hope to see many many more – I´d love to have many of them in my own archives 😉 camera trapping is an area I have no experience of and would love to discuss the in and outs of the set ups with Richard at some point 😉
My thoughts will be with you on Tuesday Richard.
Best wishes
George
While next week is of paramount importance to Richard Ness – and I wish him, his family and colleagues well -it is also important to Indonesians.
This beautiful, resource rich but poor country is missing out on one of histories largest mineral and energy booms. During a period of frantic investment in the energy and mineral sector world wide it is in decline Indonesia.
Now this may please the legions of wealth western activist who long campaigned against extractive industries, but it is condemning millions of locals to a further life of grinding poverty.
Richard and the Minahasa Raya project represented the true hope for Indonesia – a firm that creates wealth, pays good wages, pays taxes, monitors and protects the environment and adds to the community.
Instead being welcomed they have been lied about, thrown in jail, sued and prosecuted. And they and others like them are leaving or going elsewhere.
Now the fault lies mainly with greedy local elites. But behind them with money, support and propaganda lies a team of western elites and their media mates like New York Times journalist Jane Perlez.
If justice was being done it is they who should be on trial for actions against humanity.
Good luck Richard.
I would also like to add my best wishes for Richard next Tuesday.
Unfortunatly green fundamentalism and islamic fundamentalism is a potent mix. Especially when supported by left wing political journalism.
The whole sorry business is not only a tragedy for Richard Ness, but also for the Indonesian people who are denied the opportunity for a more prosperous life, by these people.
In the Hunter Valley, a member of the extremist Greenpeace group has won an action in the Land and Environment Court, which will halt the proposed Anvil Hill Coalmine being developed by Centennial Coal, because of “Global Warming” implications. Hopefully for the sake of jobs and the Nation’s prosperity, the mine will still proceed.
Anyway Richard, very best of luck for Tuesday, and may justice prevail
Sid Reynolds
‘condemning millions of locals to a further life of grinding poverty.’ Mike Nahan
No, what is condeming those millions to a life of grinding poverty is the fact that Indonesia is one of the most over populated nations on earth and disingenuous propaganda that profit syphoning multinational mining companies and their share holders are on an altruistic crusade to change the world for the poor is cobblers.
If the evidence suggesting Mr Ness’s innocence is authentic then I wish him well and hope he is acquitted.
I have to say I find the shameless plugging of the shill doco Mine Your Own Business attached to every mention Mr Ness’s predicament rather less than tasteful……
‘Hopefully for the sake of jobs and the Nation’s prosperity, the mine will still proceed.’
Don’t even dare to compare something like Anvil Hill and possible jobs/cash gain from a finite resource to economic and social infrastructure in Indonesia. When the people in the Hunter Valley are out on the street trying to sell dirty pieces of paper and empty water containers and living in cardboard shanties, then maybe you will find me sympathetic and believing that the multitudes of recognised endangered and threatened species in the area that will make way for the mine is justified.
I wish anyone who is before the judicial system in Indonesia luck, because truth and solid evidence certainly aint going to help.
I’m with you Lamna, give it a rest on the documentary plug, and try not to have such a simplistic and anti-green view of how all the world’s problems have come about.
All anvil requires is an EIA incl GHGs. Wont stop anything
Best of luck to Richard in getting a fair & honest trial
I hope that Both Richard Ness and the Indonesian legal system are free to see that justice is done.
The claim against mining in Indonesia by a health professional is extremely similar to a claim made by a Doctor in Tasmania who campaigns against forestry.
On 8 April 2002 Dr Frank Nicklason a spokesperson for Doctor For Forests (ie against the forest industry) said on television news that was broadcast in Tasmania:
‘The bottom of the woodchip piles, I’ve been told, or at least one of them hasn’t moved here in seven years so it will be compost and it will almost certainly have Legionella and fungal organisms which can be blown across town’.
The next day DFF released a media statement stating in part:
“Potentially dangerous legionella bacteria and fungal organisms could be present in the stockpiles, posing significant health threats, especially if inhaled.
“Contrary to recent claims from Mr John Gay, from Gunns Ltd that the stockpiles are turned over every three months, I have been told by sources from the wharf that for at least one of the stockpiles, the base has remained undisturbed for several years.
“If this advice is correct, then the material at the base could be similar to compost or potting mix, and gardeners buying potting mix are warned of the potential dangers of legionella bacteria, fungal disease, asthma and dermatitis if such matter isn’t handled carefully.
“The elderly, those with chronic lung conditions and people with weakened immune systems are at most risk from legionella bacteria, along with certain fungal organisms which can cause allergic lung conditions.”
Of course an independent assessment found no such health risk. http://www.nafi.com.au/news/view.php3?id=1551
Hopefully the truth will win out in Indonesia.