Transcript
JONATHAN PARAIA: The Justice Foundation and 17 clan agents together we are suing the state for $US13.28 million because the state has breached the agreement that was signed in 1989.
DON WISEMAN: It's a very large amount of money, isn't it? If you are suing the PNG government it's bigger than the Budget that just came out or about the same size as the Budget that just came out.
JP: Yeah that is correct but that is based on our agreement, the contract for Porgera Mine, signed between the state and the landowners, but the state has got its own agreement with the Canadian mining company, Barrick - what they call mining development contract. So we expect the government to call on the company to take responsibility for the claim because the company is the one that is causing the problems and destroying the people's livelihoods.
DW: Can we just recap on what it is that you are accusing Barrick of. What have they done?
JP: Well the biggest thing they have done is destroying the normal lives of people. You know people in Papua New Guinea they live on the land. Now when you destroy the land the people are displaced. The company should have purchased new land and moved them out of the Special Mining Lease area. They failed to do that. That is one of them. Now another thing is they destroyed all the drinking water systems. People in the community, they drink fresh water from the mountains in the rivers and the creeks and when they conducted the mining activities they polluted all our drinking water systems and the company gets its water supply from the mountain - pipe it down into their area and they use fresh water. Whereas landowners are drinking all the dirty water from the mine activities. Even when we get tanks and put it at our house it is polluted with dust from the mine and also the acid rain from the fumes that are coming out of the autoclaves. We don't know what chemical it contains. So that is one of the examples of the company destroying the lives of the people. And they failed to build the township which they are supposed to build to reduce the fly in/out operation and the employees are supposed to be accommodated in the properly built and developed town area with all the town amenities for the employees to bring their families and live in there. They failed to do that. And they recruit employees from outside Porgera and allow them to live in the community and find their own accommodation within the community, which also puts pressure on the shortage of land, and all lawlessness and all the problems they have created. They failed to assist in building roads, connecting between the Tari and Porgera road, alternate road routes that are required to be built under their agreement between the state and the landowners. And the company has access to funds, what they call tax credit scheme, allowed by the government for the company to build such roads, they failed to build that. And they have destroyed our education facilities within the Special Mining Lease area. For example the elementary schools, the primary schools and all the health services like clinics that used to be in the SML, they have destroyed them. And they built the health centre within the mine site area and they don't allow the local people to have access to it, and even they did not assist to fund the hospital which has been closed down now due to lack of funding, and that is in breach of our agreement as well. So those are some of the things. We have got so many things that are to be complied with under the agreement. They failed to do that. They are not taking responsibility, corporate responsibility to fix the problem they are creating. And the problem is we cannot sue them directly. We don't have an agreement with them, and therefore the state has failed to enforce the law against the mine, or enforced the mining development contract that it has with the company, Barrick Nuigini. The state failed to enforce the laws and agreement, the mining development contract they have. So as a result the people's livelihood has been impacted to a large degree, and some of the damages are beyond resolvable, like taking the land away permanently and making our landowners refugees on our own land. They are becoming nomad and there is no future for our future generations. So now we have to take the action. We have established Justice Foundation to fight for justice.
