Irawaty Wardany and Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The South Jakarta District Court rejected Tuesday an environmental pollution lawsuit filed by the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) against PT Newmont Minahasa Raya's gold mining operation at North Sulawesi's Buyat Bay.
Presiding judge I Ketut Manika said none of the evidence or witnesses presented by Walhi could prove what caused the environmental damage at Buyat Bay, despite testimonies from fishermen who claimed fish in the bay had been dying mysteriously ever since Newmont started operating in the area.
This was the second court to free Newmont of allegations of environmental pollution after the Manado District Court ruling in April 2007.
The judges rejected Walhi's argument that Newmont did not have a license permitting it to dump its waste in the bay and release mercury into the air. "These are administrative matters, they have nothing to do with the violation of environmental law," judge Manika said.
Walhi's lawyer, Firman Wijaya, said the court's verdict proved the judges were not ecologically minded. "All they can think about is the administrative requirements," he told reporters after the court session.
Firman said the judges did not even consider the reality that Buyat Bay had been polluted. "They did not even seem to care about the documents on the release of mercury into the air and the vanishing of deep-sea species and plankton," he said.
He added the court hearing was a waste of time, as justice had not been upheld. "The judges' decision did not even seem to factor in the reality Buyat Bay had been polluted," said Chairil Syah, another Walhi lawyer. Chairil added Walhi would soon file for a case review.
Meanwhile, a subsidiary of the US-based Newmont company, PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), is also likely to face a legal suit from local company Quantra Internusa (QI), after it allegedly suspended its partnership contract with the latter.
QI has demanded NNT pay US$6.6 million in compensation for material losses it suffered from the unilateral suspension of the contract, which should have been effective until July 2010.
NNT spokesperson Kasan Mulyono said the legal complaint was baseless. "The working contract has a clause allowing both parties to suspend unilaterally if either are dissatisfied," he told The Jakarta Post.