Publicity: | For the past two years the financial community in Jakarta, especially overseas investors, have been keeping a very nervous eye on developments 2000 kilometres away to the north in Sulawesi. |
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| The tiny inlet of Buyat Bay, has been a battleground with one of the world's biggest mining companies, Newmont, facing monumental lawsuits from environmental groups, activists, and most importantly the Indonesian government itself. |
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| Newmont has been accused of poisoning an entire community through the discharge of its mining waste into the bay. Water samples taken by Indonesian police indicated massive levels of mercury and arsenic were to be found in Buyat Bay but other tests including those conducted by Australia's CSIRO found the bay to be clean. |
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| At the centre of these accusations stands Richard Ness, the executive director of Newmont's Indonesian operations. For the past two years he has been dragged through the courts, and if convicted of the criminal charges brought against him he faces three years in jail. |
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| But Buyat Bay is not what it appears to be, and recent events have exposed serious implications for foreign investors who venture into Indonesia. |
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| Jakarta-based correspondent Geoff Thompson travelled to North Sulawesi to try and discover whether Buyat Bay is an environmental disaster? |
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Buyat Bay/Fishing boats |
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| THOMPSON: It was the promise of plentiful fish which first lured people to beautiful Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi. A remote overnight camp for fishermen grew into a 300-strong community of fishing families squatting on private land. | 00:12 |
Fish catch | The seas were clean, the skies were blue and life was good. Then it all went very wrong. | 00:35 |
Photos. People with skin disorders | Music | 00:44 |
| THOMPSON: In mid 2004 reports emerged of alarming health problems. Scaly skin diseases, mysterious lumps, aches and pains. | 00:50 |
Protest footage |
| 01:03 |
| Front and centre in the protests was a sick baby girl named Andini Lensun. At six months, she was dead. | 01:10 |
| Her story gripped the nation and soon the world when it made the front page of the New York Times. Suddenly, Buyat Bay was a baby killer. | 01:23 |
PAN RIGHT over Buyat Bay to hills | Exactly one kilometre from the shore of Buyat Bay, and 80 metres down, lies the end of a pipeline where a mining operation in the hills above the bay discharged its waste for nearly a decade. Campaigners against that venture claim that waste destroyed the reef, contaminated the fish and poisoned the people who ate them. | 01:37 |
Fishermen packing catch in ice | The Indonesian Government believes Buyat Bay has been polluted with mercury and arsenic. | 02:03 |
Ness at desk | And this is the man it blames. Richard Ness is the Indonesia director of Newmont - a giant American miner. | 02:14 |
Ness interview. Super: | NESS: Oh, we definitely were treated as criminals. I had five of my people jailed; I was detained with mandatory reporting and subsequently declared a suspect and then indicted. | 02:22 |
Ness with passport/on computer | THOMPSON: For two years he was banned from leaving the country, interrogated by police and dragged through the courts while his employees were imprisoned. NESS: We're a big company, | 02:41 |
Ness interview | but they got facts wrong; we had a good operation up there. | 02:54 |
Misty hills | Music | 03:01 |
| THOMPSON: For eight years, the hills behind Buyat Bay filled Newmont's coffers with gold. | 03:07 |
Thompson and Ness walk | THOMPSON: So when did Newmont first discover gold here? NESS: The initial discovery was made in 1986... | 03:17 |
| THOMPSON: The gold has now run out, and the mine was closed a few years ago, but Richard Ness defends the mine as being a good operation. NESS: We've always been saying there was no problem here. | 03:25 |
Ness interview | I was confident that there was no indications of pollution in the bay. | 03:35 |
Makarim | MAKARIM: I could say Newmont is one of the best mining practises here. | 03:40 |
| THOMPSON: In early 2004, Nabiel Makarim was the Minister charged with ensuring that Newmont did not pollute Buyat Bay. | 03:46 |
Super: Nabiel Makarim | MAKARIM: There were two studies that were done when I was there that clearly showed no pollution. | 03:54 |
Election footage | THOMPSON: But 2004 was an election year. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was swept into office. And the former Minister for Environment, Nabiel Makarim, was out of a job. His report clearing Newmont of pollution was shelved. | 04:02 |
Makarim | MAKARIM: It's hard for me to take the conspiracy theory -- but what else? | 04:22 |
Thompson visits illegal mining operation | THOMPSON: The Buyat area is in fact rich in heavy metals, and Newmont is not the only miner here. | 04:30 |
| Scores of illegal miners litter this gold-rich country. We found this one in the middle of a residential community. | 04:44 |
| To extract the precious metal from the arsenic-laden rock they use cyanide and mercury. | 04:56 |
Mercury | If you've ever handled mercury you'd know it's pretty heavy stuff. There's actually hundreds of illegal miners just like this all over the Buyat area, and they all believe mercury is completely safe. They handle it every day without masks or gloves, and when the process is finished the waste flushed onto the land, the rivers and the creeks. | 05:06 |
| Liquid mercury, like this, is mostly not soluble in water or through human skin, but the long-term effects of exposure have not been tested here. | 05:29 |
Illegal mining operation | Unlike Newmont, the illegal miners are not regulated or monitored. When the government came looking for someone to blame for health problems in Buyat Bay, Newmont was in their sights. The illegal miners were ignored. | 05:44 |
Houses by edge of bay | In 2004 a group of NGO's and health workers visited Buyat Bay, the team was led by Dr Jane Pangemanan. | 06:09 |
Dr Pangemanan | PANGEMANAN: We examined about 100 people who lived in Buyat Bay and I found nearly all the patients I examined showed the same symptoms, such as tremors, headaches, itchiness, lumps... | 06:25 |
Waves lapping shore | Music | 06:54 |
| THOMPSON: One of the patients Dr Jane Pangemanan examined | 07:00 |
Photo. Baby Andini | was Andini Lensun. PANGEMANAN: At the end of the examination | 07:03 |
Dr Pangemanan | there was a baby called Andini who was born with scales on her body. | 07:10 |
Photo. Baby Andini | All over her body there was scales and small lumps. | 07:21 |
Photo. Mother carrying baby Andini at protest | Music | 07:28 |
| THOMPSON: Baby Andini became the symbol of all that was wrong with Newmont's mine. But instead of being treated in a hospital, she was paraded around in the street protests. | 07:31 |
Ness interview. Super: | NESS: I know for a fact that the symptoms that she had, according to the doctors, were very treatable. There were prescribed medicines, medicine wasn't taken. It was a simple illness and she died unnecessarily and that, she is an absolute victim and it's a sad state of affairs when people do that to a baby. | 07:45 |
Thompson with Dr Rotty at computer | THOMPSON: Dr Sandra Rotty also examined Baby Andini - and says Dr Jane Pangemanan got it wrong -- there were no symptoms of heavy metal poisoning, just a common skin complaint. | 08:05 |
Dr Rotty | ROTTY: We wanted to refer the baby quickly to the hospital but until the day she died they (the parents) refused to take her to the hospital and suddenly we heard that the baby had passed away. | 08:21 |
Photos. Baby Andini/ Villagers' skin disorders | Music | 08:36 |
| THOMPSON: In charge of the Government clinic near Buyat Bay since 1999, she examined the villagers every day. The ailments were common to village communities throughout the region. | 08:41 |
| ROTTY: Honestly speaking, they are sick. But what kind of illness? | 08:55 |
Dr Rotty | They had upper respiratory track infections, dermatitis, diarrhoea, stomach upsets, some complained of feeling weak -- but what we found were the same sort of illnesses as in other areas. | 09:00 |
Burial footage | THOMPSON: Baby Andini's burial at Buyat Bay was a public affair, but no autopsy was ever permitted by the parents. | 09:27 |
| PANGEMANAN: They didn't want to do an autopsy. | 09:39 |
Dr Pangemanan | In Indonesia, conducting autopsies is still a very difficult, especially with uneducated people. | 09:41 |
| Music | 09:50 |
Photo. Police collecting water samples | THOMPSON: Baby Andini's death spurred the police into action. They took water samples at Buyat Bay and agreed to split them with Newmont, so the company could conduct its own tests. |
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Water sample bottles | THOMPSON: The Indonesian police samples tendered in court found levels of arsenic and mercury ten to ten thousand times higher than any other studies. | 10:13 |
Ness. | NESS: There were 24 samples of water taken in the field. When we got into court, however, in the evidence there were 34 samples, or ten more than what was originally taken. We can't explain it, nobody else can explain it. | 10:26 |
Photos. Buyat Bay | THOMPSON: Samples taken by the World Health Organisation and Australia's own CSIRO agreed with Newmont's own tests which found the water in Buyat Bay to be unpolluted by heavy metals. | 10:44 |
Ness | NESS: There's only two logical conclusions that one can draw from this, and that is either somebody tampered with the police samples, or there was a major laboratory error in the sampling results, because they were totally at odds with all other water samples that's ever been taken in the region. | 11:01 |
Relocating residents | THOMPSON: The police evidence also bolstered a campaign by local activists to relocate the community of Buyat Bay. | 11:18 |
| Health workers from the Islamic charity group Mer-C now joined the fray, blaming every illness on Newmont. The company was now fighting on two fronts. | 11:33 |
| NESS: It was very impactive, to our company and my family. | 11:45 |
Ness. Super: Richard Ness | Nobody's wife likes to see her husband's picture on the front page of the paper with these type of allegations that we've harmed people and hurt the environment. | 11:50 |
Relocating villagers | [singing] | 12:02 |
| THOMPSON: In mid-2005, the campaigners got their wish. The permanent relocation of 276 people to Duminanga 130 kilometres away. | 12:08 |
| Before leaving the Buyat area the villagers were even persuaded to destroy their homes and burn them to the ground. | 12:22 |
Woman cooks fish | But when we recently visited Buyat Bay some of the villagers had come back. | 12:35 |
Bawole shows lump on elbow | Hershon Bawole is one of the villagers whose returned. Like Baby Andini, the lump on his elbow was featured prominently in the environmentalists' campaign and in the trial. | 12:45 |
Bawole interview | THOMPSON: Why did you leave here in the first place? | 12:59 |
| BAWOLE: I moved because they said I'm ill. I don't know... at that time I didn't feel sick but they said I am and they asked me to move to Duminanga. | 13:01 |
| THOMPSON: Do you still believe the people who told you that, that you would get sick? | 13:13 |
| BAWOLE: I don't believe it. | 13:17 |
| THOMPSON: What did they say to you about your lump? | 13:20 |
| BAWOLE: There was an examination and they said the lump was due to the actions of the company. | 13:22 |
Fishermen drag boat to shore/ Children swimming | THOMPSON: It was the anecdotal reports of lots of fish turning up lumpy or dead which first got the attention of environmental campaigners. | 13:32 |
| Soon lumps, bumps and rashes on people's skin were blamed on the fish they were catching. Not so, say those who never left Buyat Bay. | 13:46 |
Fisherman | FISHERMAN: No such thing. Right now no-one's getting sick from eating fish or swimming Well, eating fish makes children healthier and in better condition. | 13:59 |
Preparing fish for cooking | THOMPSON: The alleged poisoning from the consumption of fish was a principle pillar in the case against Newmont. | 14:20 |
| NESS: In court there was a witness that was a mathematical expert from MIT in the United States, that went and did an analysis on that, and he gave testimony before the court that the | 14:29 |
Ness | report was baseless, with many, many errors, both mathematically, misapplication of formulas, wrong concentrations and so on. As an example it's got the people eating five kilos of fish a day, that's absolutely ridiculous. | 14:44 |
| THOMPSON: The Judges agreed with Newmont. | 15:04 |
Boats on beach | Music | 15:07 |
| THOMPSON: But the campaign against Newmont was not over. | 15:13 |
WALHI office | The Environment Ministry's court case was supported by Indonesia's leading environmentalist group WALHI. In Jakarta, they opened a third front against the company. | 15:16 |
| Music | 15:26 |
Siregar in WALHI office | THOMPSON: WALHI's Buyat Bay expert, Raja Siregar, followed the case from the beginning, and wrote a book about it. | 15:31 |
| When the case for poisoned fish couldn't be proven, WALHI shifted its focus to the levels of arsenic found in the community's drinking water. | 15:37 |
Siregar | SIREGAR: People are sick; we have to find out why people are sick. | 15:50 |
| THOMPSON: But it's not because the Newmont tailings in Buyat Bay. Do you agree with that? | 15:56 |
| SIREGAR: Yes I agree with that. There's other source of contamination, which is drinking water. | 16:01 |
Makarim interview | THOMPSON: For former environment minister Nabiel Makarim, the reality is obvious - Newmont has been targeted. | 16:10 |
| MAKARIM: Targeting means I bring a case against you, case A. When it fails, I go the second case. If it fails I go to the third case and it's endless and this is not law enforcement. | 16:18 |
Ext. Office building | THOMPSON: Despite witnessing his department's case being demolished in court, Nabiel Makarim's successor is not retreating. | 16:36 |
| WITOELAR: I'm not an environmental scientist, I'm a bureaucrat. | 16:44 |
Witoelar interview. Super: Rachmat Witoelar | I'm a minister in the cabinet, so I understand that I have to listen to people who will know better than us. And then again, on the other side, I do hear the reports from CSIRO, WHO, and I was questioning them - what about these who are countermanding your reports? And they explained to me in such a manner that I believe that my staff has done the right thing. | 16:48 |
New houses | Music | 17:17 |
| THOMPSON: Two years later, the people who fled Buyat Bay have got what they were promised - their own houses on their own land. | 17:25 |
| Local leaders claim the community's health has improved and the strange lumps have disappeared. | 17:36 |
Dr Kulo at clinic | Dr. Debby Kulo remembers Hershon Bawole and the lump on his elbow which featured in the anti-Newmont campaign, before he returned to Buyat Bay. | 17:45 |
Dr Kulo interview | KULO: The lumps, called lipomas, are common -- anyone could have them. But they're not dangerous. They're just from the accumulation of fatty tissues. | 17:57 |
| THOMPSON: We met a man called Herson who has a bump on his arm. Have you examined this man, and what do you think his problem is? | 18:09 |
| KULO: It's not dangerous -- because if it's lipoma, like I said, then it's not dangerous. | 18:17 |
Dr Kulo at clinic with patient | THOMPSON: After the interview, the Mer-C doctor claimed that Hershon's lump was dangerous while he was in Buyat, but not here in Duminanga. | 18:30 |
Ness interview | NESS: The people that were damaged on this really were the people of the village, by these unfounded allegations, as was Indonesia's investment reputation. This has been devastating for all parties; there hasn't been a win-win in this one. It's cost us millions, it's cost the government millions and it's cost even the small fisherman some of their livelihood. | 18:40 |
Ness at barbecue dinner | THOMPSON: At the Newmont site in Buyat Bay it's time for a small celebration. Failure to win his criminal trial would have meant jail for Richard Ness. | 19:12 |
Ness thanks supporters | NESS: Okay, well first of all our primary reason for coming here tonight was to say a special thanks to all of you for supporting us through this difficult 34 months of our time. | 19:27 |
| THOMPSON: As a practising Muslim who married here, Richard Ness still calls Indonesia home. | 19:41 |
| NESS: And not only did you stand fast behind us, your families and stuff also did, and all of that is what completely made a difference and gave us the strength to come back and fight for this. | 19:46 |
| THOMPSON: Richard Ness will have to keep fighting -- the Indonesian Government and environmental groups have appealed to the Supreme Court against Newmont's win. | 20:04 |
Credits: | Reporter : Geoff Thompson Camera: David Anderson Research: Ake Prihantari Producer : Wayne Harley Editor: Garth Thomas Production Company: ABC Australia - Foreign Correspondent | 20:13
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