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Viewing cable 06JAKARTA3849, NEWMONT BELIEVES JAKARTA-BASED GROUPS BEHIND

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06JAKARTA3849 2006-03-24 00:48 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Jakarta
VZCZCXRO9911
RR RUEHCHI RUEHFK RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHPB
DE RUEHJA #3849/01 0830048
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 240048Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1676
INFO RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 9257
RUEHBN/AMCONSUL MELBOURNE 0424
RUEHPT/AMCONSUL PERTH 0431
RUEHJA/AMCONSUL SURABAYA 1304
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY 0750
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 003849 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EMIN EINV PGOV ASEC ID
SUBJECT: NEWMONT BELIEVES JAKARTA-BASED GROUPS BEHIND 
SUMBAWA VIOLENCE 
 
REF: A. A. JAKARTA 03690 (FREEPORT SEES LOOSE-KNIT GROUP) 
 
     B. B. JAKARTA 03484 (TENSION HIGH IN ABEPURA) 
     C. C. JAKARTA 03404 (DEMONSTRATIONS TURN VIOLENT) 
     D. D. JAKARTA 02492 (MINE CLOSED BY ILLEGAL MINERS) 
 
JAKARTA 00003849  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
 1.  (SBU) Summary: Jakarta-based environmental 
non-governmental organizations initiated the protests that 
ended in the destruction of Newmont Mining Company,s 
exploration camp at Elang on the island of Sumbawa on March 
19, according to Newmont executives.  As a result of the 
attack by approximately 50 local people, Newmont has closed 
the camp and suspended indefinitely its exploration 
activities in the area.  Their large gold mine operation at 
Batu Hijau, 60 kilometers away, remains open and unaffected. 
Newmont believes that the NGOs are also involved at least 
partly in orchestrating the recent protests against Freeport 
and ExxonMobil.  End summary. 
 
NGO STRATEGY TO DRIVE OUT NEWMONT 
--------------------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) Newmont Senior External Relations Manager Robert 
Humberson told us on March 22 that two Jakarta-based 
environmental non-governmental organizations, WALHI and 
JATAM, initiated recent protests against one of the Newmont 
Mining Company,s Indonesian subsidiaries, PT Newmont Nusa 
Tenggara (PTNNT) and its exploration camp at Elang on the 
island of Sumbawa.  Humberson also claimed the two groups are 
at least one of the driving forces behind the recent Freeport 
demonstrations (see reftels).  One week prior to the March 19 
attack, Humberson said a person affiliated with JATAM had 
leaked to them a document that detailed a plan by WALHI 
(Friends of the Earth-Indonesia) and JATAM (the Indonesian 
Mining Advocacy Network) to drive PTNNT from the Elang area. 
According to the document, the two NGOS hoped to use their 
network of community organizers in the area to create 
unrealistic expectations for financial enrichment from the 
mining operation among the local villagers.  Once these 
inflated expectations went unmet, the NGOs reasoned that the 
backlash by the local community would drive PTNNT from the 
area. 
 
3.  (SBU) Newmont said it was disappointed in the local 
police responsiveness, despite Newmont providing the leaked 
document to them along with further information that 
WALHI/JATAM had sent two local community organizers, Dedi and 
Hermann, to the area around Elang to stir up the villagers. 
The two community organizers had been proselytizing villagers 
about 30 kilometers from the exploration camp since 6 or 7 
March, according to Humberson.  He added the local police 
told them that they had everything under control and that 
Newmont was worrying excessively.  Despite these assurances, 
the villagers cut the road to the camp and seized five PTNNT 
vehicles on 8 March, demanding that they be treated in 
financial terms exactly like the villagers immediately 
surrounding the exploration camp.  The villagers held the 
vehicles for about a week and finally returned them on 15 
March.  Humberson said the local and district police 
continued to maintain that they had the situation under 
control. 
 
VILLAGERS WARN OF PLANNED MARCH; POLICE DO LITTLE 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
4.  (SBU) On or about 12 March, Humberson said they began to 
hear from villagers sympathetic to the company that Dedi and 
Hermann planned to organize a march of approximately 200 
locals to the exploration camp, though he had no indication 
that they incited the villagers to commit violence. 
Humberson said they passed this information to the police, 
who again took no action.  On March 17, Newmont received 
further information from sympathetic locals that the marchers 
were arming themselves with small containers of gasoline, 
information they also passed to the police.   Humberson said 
the police again counseled against panic but did reinforce 
the number of their officers at the exploration camp from 
eight to 33. 
 
5.  (SBU) Based on the lack of police responsiveness to the 
vehicle seizures and their continued relative indifference to 
the information about the planned march, PTNNT decided to 
begin evacuating their staff from the camp on March 17.  In 
the late afternoon of March 18, approximately 50 marchers 
 
JAKARTA 00003849  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
entered the camp with gasoline and informed the remaining 
PTNNT employees that they intended to burn it down the 
following day.  The group made no demands for discussion or 
negotiation with PTNNT.  The police again took no action, 
according to Humberson.  By the end of the day on March 18, 
Newmont had evacuated all staff and closed the camp.  At 
about 05:30 th next day, the protestors returned and burned 
all the buildings in the camp, causing about USD 500,000 in 
damage.  In total about eighteen wooden structures were 
destroyed.  Police were nowhere in evidence during the early 
morning arson attack, according to Humberson. 
 
UNLIKELY TO REBUILD EXPLORATION CAMP 
------------------------------------ 
 
6. (SBU) Following the arson attack, Humberson said, 
somewhere between 200 and 400 locals supportive of PTNNT,s 
operations in the area began their own counter-march against 
the arsonists and attacked them in the woods.  Humberson said 
he had no information that serious injuries resulted.  Since 
the March 19 incident, Newmont has closed the camp, pulled 
out all the undamaged drilling equpment, and suspended 
indefinitely its exploratio activities in the area. 
Humberson said it was &less than a 50 percent chance8 that 
the Denver headquarters would ever decide to return to the 
area, though that decision has more to do with the 
unsatisfactory results from their explorations than security 
considerations.  PTNNT,s main office in Sumbawa Besar 
remains closed indefinitely as well.  Humberson said the 
local and district police are now conducting what appear to 
be thorough investigations of the incidents and the events 
leading up to them. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment: Humberson offered no proof that the two 
NGOs are also behind the protests against Freeport and 
ExxonMobil, but it is very plausible that these long-time 
foes of the extractive industries would be coordinating on a 
national strategy against foreign mining and energy companies 
in Indonesia.  Although there are almost surely other forces 
involved in fomenting the recent demonstrations against 
Freeport and ExxonMobil (Ref A), the activist networks of 
Walhi, Jatam and other NGOs are a key factor explaining the 
recent demonstrations.  End comment. 
 
PASCOE