T

he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) will conduct an audit on gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia following the government’s decision to assign the body an advisory role during a settlement with the company over a contractual dispute.

The local subsidiary of the United States-based mining giant Freeport McMoRan and the Indonesian government are in a standoff over the latter’s demand that a 1991 contract of work (CoW) be converted into a special mining license (IUPK) before the company can extend its export permit. The move would automatically annul the long-term investment stability guarantee provided in the CoW.

Both parties have been working on settling the dispute since Feb. 17. The company has stated that it could take the case to international arbitration if there is no settlement within 120 days.

However, as tensions escalate from one day to the next, many parties have become embroiled in the dispute, including Komnas HAM.

The commission has stated that the company never paid compensation for land it currently uses as its working area in Mimika, Timika, Papua, to its original owners — the indigenous Amongme people.

“There should be an acknowledgment of the indigenous people. Then, it is important to carry out a human rights audit on this matter,” Komnas HAM commissioner Nur Kholis told reporters after a meeting with Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan recently.

Nur Kholis said an audit was inevitable in the modern mining business and would include several aspects, such as the rights of indigenous people, workers and environmental sustainability.

Meanwhile, another Komnas HAM commissioner, Natalius Pigai, said if the Freeport Indonesia case could be settled in a positive manner, especially if there was proper compensation for the use of the indigenous people’s land for the past 50 years, it would set a positive precedent for Indonesia’s mining sector in the future.

“We can start in Timika before implementing such human rights-based approaches nationwide,” Natalius said.

Nonetheless, Freeport Indonesia spokesperson Riza Pratama said the indigenous Amongme and Kamoro people had released their land rights and allowed the area to be used for the company’s mining activities.

“Upon the release of the land rights, as stated in the legislation, Freeport Indonesia provided compensation in the form of the recognition program, in the form of the development and provision of public facilities,” Riza told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He also said the company had consistently conducted community development programs for five other tribes, namely the Moni, Dani, Mee, Nduga and Damal tribes that originated from around the company’s working area.

“As of 2015, Freeport Indonesia contributed US$1.4 billion to its community development program,” Riza said.

Komnas HAM previously investigated Freeport Indonesia following a fatal tunnel collapse at the company’s Big Gossan training facility in Mimika on May 14, 2013.

As a result, the commission alleged in February 2014 that negligence by the company led to the death of 28 workers during the incident. It claimed the collapse was a mining accident instead of a natural disaster due to the lack of monitoring by experts from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and Freeport Indonesia over rock conditions around the tunnel.

Previously, several landslides had occurred in the company’s working areas in Papua, including in 1995, 2000 and 2003, resulting in the death of dozens of workers and severe damage to public facilities.

On Tuesday morning, representatives of the indigenous Amongme and Kamoro peoples visited the Komnas HAM office in Jakarta to report damage to watersheds on their original land following decades of Freeport Indonesia’s operations in Timika.

Meanwhile, Papua Governor Lukas Enembe paid a visit to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry office on Thursday to discuss the dispute settlement between the government and Freeport Indonesia.

During the meeting, the ministry’s minerals and coal director general Bambang Gatot Ariyono said the government was still negotiating on several issues related to the company’s investment stability.

“However, if Freeport Indonesia still refuses to make a settlement within six months, it can just go back to its CoW without being able to export its copper concentrates,” Bambang said.