By Jon Land
A group of Dayaks, the indigenous people of Kalimantan in Indonesia, are on a tour of Australia to promote solidarity with their struggle for land rights and compensation from Australian-based mining companies. These companies account for more than 60% of Australian investments in Indonesia.
"This tour is part of the Indonesian mining campaign being run by Community Aid Abroad over the next 18 months. It will be parallel with a national campaign in Indonesia, run by the National Mining Advocacy Network", said Leonard Simanjuntuk, one of the participants.
Planning for the tour took a year and involved field studies and strengthening the network, Simanjuntuk said.
The National Mining Advocacy Network was formed after a meeting of Indonesian NGOs in Kalimantan in December 1995, as a means to better coordinate their efforts in assisting communities affected by mining companies. Along with CAA and WALHI (Indonesia's main environment NGO), the network has been investigating six Australian-operated mines in Indonesia.
The CAA campaign is focusing on two mines: PT Kelian Equatorial Mine (PT KEM) in East Kalimantan and PT Indo Muro Kencana (PT IMK) located in Central Kalimantan. PT KEM is 90% owned by Rio Tinto, while PT IMK is 90% owned by Perth-based Aurora. Both mines produce significant amounts of gold and silver.
PT KEM produces 400,000 ounces of gold a year and is considered the largest gold mine in south-east Asia after the huge Freeport mine in Irian Jaya (in which Rio Tinto has a significant interest).
Traditional landowners and people from the towns and villages in the vicinity of these mines have had to cope with a host of problems since exploration and operations began in the 1980s. These have been exacerbated by the recent fires and drought.
"First of all, there is the impact on the environment. PT KEM dump their waste in the Kelian River which, along with the Mahakam which joins it, is now polluted", explained Pius Nyompe, a customary landowner forced off his land by the company. People no longer fish or bathe in these rivers.
"[The company] has also built a 60-kilometre-long service road from the Mahakam River to the processing plant at the mine. This road goes through several villages, and dust is churned up by company trucks day and night.
"The dust causes many health and economic problems. Many roadside food stalls can't operate any more; coffee and pineapple are smothered by the dust. There are now many dust-related respiratory diseases", said Nyompe.
Last September, angry residents from Linggang Biggung blockaded the road and demanded that the company do something. PT KEM agreed to take responsibility for the maintenance of the road while mining continues, though it also stated that it could not afford to seal it. It runs a water truck along the road from time to time.
"The community have been marginalised economically through the loss of their own small-scale mining", said Nyompe. "Before Rio Tinto came, traditional mining [panning] was the main and most important source of income. There is a regulation from the local government which allows people to do traditional mining in a 50-metre band along the banks of the Kelian River. PT KEM ignores this regulation.
"When it started exploration, the company simply claimed the area along the river. Now the people are not allowed to do their traditional mining there, and hundreds of families have been evicted from their land."
Some 440 families have been displaced since land acquisitions by the company began in 1990. The police mobile brigade and army units have been used to enforce evictions and to quell disputes over compensation.
For the loss of homes, land, plantations and the right to mine gold in the river, PT KEM offered the paltry sum of around 1 million rupiah (about A$650 at the 1990 rate) to each landowner. Many people who lost their land were not compensated at all, because they could not provide "official" proof of ownership, despite having lived there for up to 40 years.
Frustrated by their treatment by the company and the authorities, 600 local residents protested at the resettlement town of Tutung and at the main gate of the mine in December 1992.
Eleven community leaders were taken away by helicopter to the administrative centre at Tenggarong and placed in police custody. They were told they would be able to raise their concerns with local government and PT KEM. One week later they had not met anyone and one of the group, Edward Tarung, had died in mysterious circumstances. Those detained with him believe that he was poisoned.
The gap in living standards between the employees of Rio Tinto and the local community is getting wider and wider, causing new social problems.
Nyompe and his group are scathing about PT KEM publications which talk up the benefits the mine provides to the community, referring to them as "glossy lies". The unwillingness of the company to respond to the concerns of people affected by the mine remains a big obstacle.
Nyompe told Green Left Weekly that the Dayak communities want the right to negotiate, on an equal basis, with PT KEM, without government or military intervention.
"We want genuine representatives of the community, and not those appointed by Rio Tinto, to negotiate. We want to have a real discussion, with an independent third party present."
While in Australia, the Dayak people hope to speak directly with representatives of Rio Tinto and Aurora. So far they have met with trade unions, solidarity and human rights organisations and Aboriginal groups, and have given public forums.
A highlight for the group was when they addressed a 500-strong stop-work meeting of CFMEU members on February 2 at Singleton in the Hunter Valley. After a presentation of CFMEU caps made for the Hunter Valley No. 1 picket, the chant of "the workers united will never be defeated" filled the meeting hall.
The Dayaks' plight is being publicised by the international campaign by unions against the anti-worker practices of Rio Tinto.
[For details about the Dayaks Down Under tour in Canberra, Adelaide and Perth, contact Community Aid Abroad on (03) 9289 9444.]