JAKARTA, Indonesia - Lawyers claiming to represent an Indonesian tribe have filed a lawsuit against U.S. mining company Freeport, demanding $30 billion in damages for unspecified environmental and human rights violations, court officials and a media report said Friday.
Source: AP
- Freeport declined to comment directly on the suit, but its e-mailed statement said previous petitions making "similar baseless and human rights claims have been dismissed in both Indonesian and United States courts due to the inability of the plaintiffs to present facts to support their allegations."
- Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. operates the world's largest gold mine in the eastern Indonesia region of Papua.
- The Freeport mine has frequently been targeted by rights groups and environmental campaigners who variously claim it is stealing the region's wealth, evicting local people from ancestral lands and polluting the environment. It is also regularly the focus of protests by local residents, and has been targeted with arson, roadside bombs and blockades since production began in the 1970s.
- The company has also been criticized for paying Indonesian security forces to guard the mine.
- Last month, a series of ambushes close to the Freeport mine left three people dead. Police have made several arrests but have not publicly speculated on a motive.
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