PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Ok Tedi hit by new claim

Wednesday, March 21, 2001 - 11:00

A landowner group along the Ok Tedi River in PNG's Western Province is demanding more than A$1 million compensation for the destruction of the river system by the Ok Tedi mine, owned by BHP.

The Opp Incorporated Land Group, claiming to represent the Ningerum tribe, wants Ok Tedi Mining Limited to compensate them for pollution to the river, which runs through their tribal land.

Opp spokesperson Dick Tenok told the March 17-18 PNG Post-Courier: "The destruction of the river system and our traditional sacred sites, burial sites, fishing sites, hunting grounds and the wildlife by the mine's waste must be equally and fairly compensated."

From GLW issue 441