Another Bougainville?

By Wally Hiambohn

HAS another Bougainville reared its ugly head? That is the question many would be asking now following a law suit filed in the Melbourne Supreme Court last month.

The suit, filed by members of the Miripiki clan of PNG’s Western Prov

ince, is against Australian mining giant

Ok Tedi mining company, in which Broken Hill Minerals Propriety Com pany Ltd (BHP) has a majority stake of the Ok Tedi copper mine in the Star Mountains near the PNG-Irian Jaya border. The landowners are claiming damages and compensation for the alleged destruction of the Ok Tedi and Fly River systems by the< mine which

began production in 1984.

Clan leader Rex Dagi, days before filing the suit on May 6, said the Fly River environment issue was another Bougainville. Although both issues in volve mining and environmental con cerns, while Bougainville’s Francis Ona claimed for US$lO billion in compen sation and is fighting a bloody guerilla war with guns, Dagi has resorted to using the courts as the battleground. Dagi claims his village on the floodplains of the Ok Tedi River has been one of the worst areas affected by “tonnes of rock being deposited on the river bed and caused floods in the area”.

“It might happen like Bougainville

and I’m scared because I’m the only key person who’s been stopping these people not to do any action, until we tried the legal proceedings,” he told the media in PNG. “Everybody down the river, es pecially the Ok Tedi river, are very angry about what’s happened. Francis Ona has gone to a far extreme to take everything into his own hands. I’m only trying to settle it peacefully ... (so) all parties are happy the investors, the PNG government as well as my people.”

Dagi said his people did not want the mine to close but wanted Ok Tedi to give them more financial compensation and put in place environmental restoration programmes. “The river must come back as it used to be ... the forest and the fish and people’s lives have been totally destroyed.” The likelihood of such a court case was indicated in May of 1992, when a group of Western Province

leaders, including premier Isidore

Kaseng arrived in Port Moresby, camped at a motel for a week and waited in vain to meet with government officials to discuss the environment and trust fund arrangements. After the long wait Kaseng had this to say “I am totally fed up.” Kaseng said then that his (Fly River provincial) government was in the process of seeking international support

to press a claim of “hundreds of millions of kina” in compensation from Ok Tedi Mining Ltd for polluting the Fly River system. Kaseng, before leaving for Daru, threatened to close the Ok Tedi mine if the government failed to respond by May 29. This ultimatum was later extended to June 13. The government reacted strongly to the threats and ordered the arrest of Kaseng for making threats. He was released on a K2OO bail.

Then Prime Minister Rabbie Namaliu said Kaseng’s attempt to force the closure was illegal. Namaliu said government officials had gone to Kiunga to meet representatives of the provincial govern ment in a bid to sort out the dispute but Kaseng and his cabinet had decided to go ahead with the push for the mine closure. “I cannot imagine a worse

PNG landowners have filed court action claiming damages for the alleged destruction of the Ok Tedi and Fly River systems by the mine. They say the forest, fish and people’s live are completely destroyed. But the mining company concerned insists the long-term importance of the mine outweighs its environmental effects.

example of leadership and responsibil

ity,” Namaliu said. “I don’t belive his concern about the environment is genu ine.” Ok* Tedi defended itself against

criticisms saying the long-term import

ance of the mine outweighed its environ mental effects. It said the mine operated to environmental standards based on “one of the most comprehensive monitor ing and research programmes ever un dertaken on a tropical river”.

It said the monitoring began in 1981 and now covered 1000 kilometres from the headwaters of the Ok Tedi to the Fly River delta and the Gulf of Papua. This work was carried out by the mine’s own scientific staff and in collaboration with

internationally recognised authorities on

tropical river and soil research, and it was continuously reviewed by govern ment regulatory authorities, the com pany said. “Fly River water remains completely safe to drink and the fish are safe to eat.” The company said the local people were benefiting from royalties, a

community trust, small business develop ment programmes, infrastructure devel opment and improved medical health and education services. Local people who lost garden areas along the river system

are also being compensated.

A press conference called by Kaseng but which he did not attend was told by his deputy Gonene Kurokuro that the impact of the tailings dumping into the river had a serious impact on the river.

Independent research, he said, showed fish stocks or the quality of water had

been adversely affected. “Independent

studies show there is a serious problem.

Our people have been told to start preparing because the problems will get worse over the next 10 years. The fish are dying and the crocodiles are going into the tributaries and out of the main river

system.”

PNG’s current Environment and Con servation Minister Parry Zeipi, who is from the Fly River area, in a statement issued on July 5 when he was in

opposition supported Kaseng and criti

cised the government’s actions to arrest Kaseng. He said the government had Eressed the panic button “too soon”, ast month, when the claim was filed, Zeipi expressed surprise saying he did not expect the issue to go that far, and blamed foreigners of influencing his people. In July 1989, the government of Namaliu had to decide between the country’s economy and the environment when it was confronted with the choice of building a tailings dam or for the mine to discharge sediments directly into the river system. It was presented with options to either force the company to build a tailings dam, or shut down the mine altogether. It opted for the former.

Namaliu said the discharge of sedi ments down the Fly River had been continuously monitored and studied by world-renown environmental scientists from a number of countries. These experts, he said, had advised the govern ment that there was no evidence of reduction in fish catches in the Fly River below Kuambit, a village just below the junction of the Ok Tedi and Fly Rivers.

The landowners’ lawyer in the Mel bourne case, Nick Styant-Browne, said the villagers’ subsistence lifestyle of thousands of years had been wiped out

by an “environmental catastrophe”.

“The forms that clan leaders have been asked to sign specify in detail the costs to which the lawyers are entitled to be paid from settlement or compensation monies received by or on behalf of each member of the clan,” BHP said in a statement. Ok Tedi’s environment

spokesman Murray' Eagle said there has

been very little effect on the environment until about 70 kilometres downstream of the mine. □