Human Rights, Corporate Wrongs

The Indonesians being terrorised by mining corporations

Human Rights, Corporate Wrongs Suharto may be gone, but the Indonesian military continues human rights abuses in defence of international mining interests. Reports of ethnic cleansing of indigenous tribespeople threaten to attract international attention.
Despite banning journalists from sensitive areas the evidence of a reign of terror over indigenous Irian Jayans is mounting. A man from the area near the Freeport gold mine shows his wounds following a terrifying retreat from gunfire after he strayed from his village. His is not the only case. Human rights activist John Rumbiak reports the burning of Amungme homes and churches and alleges a devastating decision to refuse Austrialian aid into drought-stricken areas around the mine. Military hostility is compounded by prejudice; "When they look at these Melanesians they have fuzzy hair, they wear penis gourds...they look at them as inferior...there is this kind of feeling among the soldiers to kill the people." The prevailing suspicion is that the atrocities are not to suppress the rag-tag Free Papua independence movement, rather they are an excuse to drive people from their land to free it for commercial exploitation. Can Indonesia hold on to the resource-rich Irian Jaya without more brutal suppression of its local tribespeople?

Produced by Shane Teehan

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