Indonesia fails to end strike at Papua mine

Workers in troubled province demand higher pay from US owners of gold and copper mining complex

 Bruno Philip
 

Striking Freeport workers manning a roadblock where the company pipeline used for gold concentrates was cut. Photograph: AFP this publihed:  Theguardia.co.uk
For weeks a strike has paralysed work at a giant mining complex at the foot of Mount Puncak Jaya in the central highlands of Papua, Indonesia, where the majority of the population are indigenous Papuans. The strike, by a third of the 23,000-strong workforce, is driving up the world prices for copper and gold. The Glasberg mine – 90% owned by the US conglomerate Freeport McMoRan and 10% by Indonesia's government – contains one of the world's largest reserves of these minerals. The miners are protesting against low wages – considering working conditions, the risks they are exposed to, and the cost of living in this isolated spot, 4,000km east of the capital, Jakarta. Tension has been mounting for several weeks, with more than 8,000 miners blocking access roads and preventing other workers from entering the site. The conflict began three months ago, and there is still no prospect of a settlement. Appeals by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for a solution have had no effect. The province where the mine is located covers the western half of a very large island. Papua New Guinea, independent since 1975, occupies the eastern part. Papua province was controlled by the Dutch until it was ceded to Indonesia in 1969. The region has been unsettled ever since. A conflict – largely ignored by the outside world – has pitted separatist forces against the Indonesian army. The province, which is closed to western media, is more or less run by the military. There have been recurrent allegations of serious human rights abuses by the army. On 14 November thousands of demonstrators marched through the provincial capital, Jayapura, demanding independence. At the start of the dispute, the workers at Glasberg, who earn the equivalent of $1.50 an hour, were demanding a 20-fold wage increase. They subsequently scaled back their claim, asking for just $4. Freeport has offered another 53 cents, but the strikers rejected this. Since then there has been deadlock. The conflict is costing the company and the country a great deal. Freeport, which reported $5bn profits on Glasberg operations in 2010, has announced losses of $19m a day since the strike began. Revenue from the mine generated about $1.4bn in tax and royalties for the government in the first half-year of 2011, according to the Jakarta Globe. Freeport says part of the government revenue finds its way back to the province, accounting for more than two-thirds of its budget – but the strikers dispute this. This article originally appeared in Le Monde