Indonesian Police accused of accepting bribes
There’s no end in sight to the world’s biggest wages-related mining strike, as Freeport workers continue blockading (West) Papua’s Grasberg operations, following Indonesian police attacks that have already claimed several lives.
Meanwhile, the police have admitted receiving money from the company to perform “security” duties: funds one spokesperson described as “lunch money” but the country’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) calls “bribery”. Paying the police to assist in breaking lawful industrial action – and committing grave human rights abuses as a result – clearly runs counter to Indonesian law.
According to a report in Indonesian Tribunnews (cited by Mineweb on 7 November 2011), Indonesia’s National Police has now agreed to allow the KPK to investigate these allegations. A police spokesman recently admitted the force had received US$14 million last year from the company and that, among the alleged beneficiaries, were 356 police officers who each received US$130 per month.
The Grasberg mine’s internal “security” is in the hands of PT Securicor Indonesia – part of G4S, the world’s most extended network of its kind that is based in the English county of West Sussex.
London-listed Rio Tinto has also been indispensable to Freeport, acting as its critical 40% joint-venture partner at the mine for over a decade.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11285.
See also Indonesian National Police to permit Freeport security funding probe, http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page36?oid=138986&sn=Detail&pid=92730.