Skeletons emerge from pine forests of Bulolo

By MALUM NALU
Apart from gold, there is something else that iconic Bulolo, Morobe province, is famous for, and that is its beautiful and majestic pine trees.

Plantation pine at Bulolo. Picture courtesy of PNG FOREST PRODUCTS

The major industry is now forestry and there are large plantings of hoop and klinkii pine trees.
The plantations are run by the National Forest Service of the PNG Forest Authority with the major client being PNG Forest Products, a company that evolved from Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd, which commenced operations in large-scale alluvial mining in the late 1920s.
But beneath the surface is a festering sore which must be attended to and that is the issue of traditional ownership of the land on which the pine plantations stand.
Skeletons of the past are now emerging from the magnificent pine forests of Bulolo.

Golden Pine Plantations, Bulolo. Picture by PNG FOREST PRODUCTS

It has the potential to become a major legal issue, like that of the Watut River, pitching landowners against the PNG and Australian governments.
It has shades of the infamous Manhattan island purchase of 1626, in which that prime piece of real estate now worth billions, was purchased from American Indians for a measly $24 worth of trinkets!
To understand how the forestry business began in Bulolo, it is necessary to step back in time, to the late 1920s when it was one of the largest gold fields in the world.
A total of seven dredges scoured the valley floor, dredging thousands of tonnes of high grade gold-bearing ore.
As the mining operation scaled down, the plywood factory and sawmill were constructed.
In collaboration with the then government, the pine plantations were also established at this time.
In 1954, plywood production and the export of product to overseas destinations commenced.
From the early 1950s the company has been involved in the conversion of both hardwood and plantation resource to high value end products.
Today, PNG Forest Products is the leading producer of timber and plywood products using only 100% plantation pine.
Its products include prefabricated houses, dressed timber and mouldings, treated power poles, export high grade plywood and veneers.
Australian administration of the then Territory of New Guinea, in 1948 and 1951, acquired the land on which large forests of hoop and klinkii pine are now situated from landowners at Manki village.
Copies of original land transfer documents obtained by The National show that that Australian administration paid a mere 583 pounds in 1948 and 5, 705 pounds in 1951 for land and forest assets now worth millions.
The landowners, however, argue that they have never seen or received any of this money
In 1952, BGD and the Australian government became partners in a company called Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers (CNGT), which has evolved into today’s PNGFP under different ownership.
The plan was to make plywood from the hoop and klinki pines on Manki land, which resulted in what landowners term the “unlawful” acquisition of native land by the Australian administration.
The Wenge Tanataime Landowners’ Association from Wautu local level government (LLG) in Bulolo, the legal body set up by landowners of Manki village, has been arguing with the PNG government over the last couple of years in relation to the 1948 and 1951 land purchases issue.
They have written to Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, acting chief secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc, PNGFA and the Lands Titles Commission (LTC), among others, to spell out their grievances.
The PNGFA, the only one to respond so far, has advised the landowners to pursue their claim through the LTC, and failing that, through the courts.
“We say this because PNG Forest Authority, as a state agency, occupies the Bulolo plantation land through a certificate of occupancy,” PNGFA legal officer Uti Sepoe said in a letter to landowners last November.
“Any closure of the plantation by your association will invoke the full force of the law.PNG Forest Authority does not wish this to happen.”
The association says the legislation governing the ‘transfer of land by natives to the administration’ during the colonial era was the Land Ordinance 1922, which stated that land may be acquired in the territory for purposes other than mining or forestry under a lease hold tenure granted by the administration in accordance with the 1922 ordinance.
The type of leases provided for were agricultural purposes, pastoral purposes, residences and business purposes, special purposes and mission leases.
“Therefore, the acquisition/purchase/transfer of Manki native land under the land ordinance is legally questionable,” the association argues.
“A legal opinion exists that purchase of native land for mining or forestry is not permitted under the land ordinance.
“The condition under which land may be taken for the purpose of felling, cutting removing and disposing of timber are set forth in the Forestry Ordinance 1936.
“That is if the native owners are willing to dispose the timber growing on any land, then the administration may acquire the exclusive right to such timber.
“In addition to the forestry ordinance, there was a special piece of legislation entitled ‘New Guinea Timber Agreement Act 1952’, which was enacted by the Australian parliament.
“This covered the agreement between the commonwealth of Australia and BGD to form a company, CNGT, with the object of acquiring timber rights in the territory.”
Landowners’ consultant, Kevin Mon, was in Port Moresby recently to follow up on letters sent last year; however, most of them, apart from NFA, didn’t seem to give a hoot.
“I have delivered documents outlining our claims to Bulolo MP Sam Basil and Morobe administrator Kemas Tomala,” he said from Bulolo.
“Up to now, we are still waiting for a reply from them.”

Basil hits back at Mauri

Chairman of Nakuwi Landowners’ Association Rex Mauri has been accused of being completely ignorant about court proceedings by Watut River landowners against the Hidden Valley Joint Venture.

Bulolo MP Sam Basil said this after criticisms and accusations leveled at him by Mauri in the Post-Courier.

 "Mr Mauri is completely ignorant about the commenced court proceedings by the Watut landowners against the Hidden Valley Joint Venture, “he said.

“His statements are not only factually incorrect but are likely politically motivated and were no doubt written by the miner.

 “It is always to the best interest of any developer in PNG to make the landowners and their political leaders to fight each other, and the more they fight, the more the developer walks away.

“So it is not worth fighting with Mr Rex Mauri.”

Basil said he was all set to fight for the disadvantaged communities, and whether it was a single person or 10,000 people, he would still fight for their rights.

 Basil also urged Mauri to reserve all political statements against him for 2012 polls and it was bad to drag and compare the financial might of MMJV against the district and national government’s grants.

 “It is also common knowledge that the national government is incapable of maintaining the services of PNG Royal Constabulary due to continuous lack of annual budgetary funding,” he said.

“Successive governments through the national executive council always compensate new projects with different types of concessions to help fund law and order and other essential services, to mainly provide for their establishment and to cover for the national government’s shortfalls.

 “This can be seen on future Hidden Valley special support grant (SSG) and tax credit funds, which has been booked against the MMJV’s K8 million annual funding of the Bulolo national highway,  because the works department is incapable of maintaining the Lae to Hidden Valley highway.

 "There is no injunction in place as Mr Mauri says.

“The Watut River landowners are suing Hidden valley Joint Venture for damages as a result of the gross environmental destruction to the Watut River and surrounding land caused by the miner. 

“They also want the miner to rehabilitate the river as their dumping of wastes into the river has buried the alluvial gold among other destructions and is preventing water flow."

 "Mr Mauri is also incorrect as the Watut River landowners are outside the mining lease area and have not received any of the so-called benefits from the mine."

 "The lawsuit is about making the miner clean up its mess, not about stopping the mine.

“The miner has done nothing to rehabilitate the river in the past year and must be forced to do so. 

“The Watut River landowners are also adamant to make sure through these court proceedings that this sort of accident by the miner never happens again."

  Basil made these comments in response to a media statement issued by Mauri on Jan 17, 2011.

 "Mr Mauri doesn’t care about the rights of people living downstream and they are in thousands and not in 100's as claimed by Rex,” he said.

Basil also extended his invitation Mauri to the courtroom on the set date to see for himself how many Watut River communities from Bulolo to Labu would attend in numbers.

 He also stressed that many of the 3, 000 landowners Mauri claimed he represented were complaining about their royalty payments, which were as low as K13 per month.

“The chairman of Nakuwi Landowners’ Association, current or future must fight together with my office for greater percentages of royalties when the Hidden Valley MOA is up for review,” Basil said.

“An increase from 2% to 5% must be asked for while 3% of the 5% must be set aside to fund the landowners’ royalties alone.

 “The Biangai and the Watut people must benefit more from the royalties then any other government entities because they are the owners of the resources being dug up and will remain with big holes after the mine life.”

 Basil is the landowners’ representative plaintiff is the court proceedings and confirmed he had instructed the Watut River landowners' lawyers to advise on whether Mauri's statements constituted a contempt of court, “as they appear to be designed to influence or intimidate the plaintiffs into discontinuing the proceedings”.

 If so, Basil has instructed the lawyers to charge Mauri with contempt of court.

 

Ogio is not a fit and proper person to be governor general.

The choice of the Somare/Abal Government as the preferred nominee for the next governor general, the current minister for education, Michael Ogio, has a history of dubious involvement in controversial illegal logging deals and is not a fit and proper person for the role as head of state,  Bulolo MP Sam Basil  said today..

Basil says that as forest minister Ogio frequently ignored the law to grant illegal access to vast areas of Papua New Guinea forests by some of the most-notorious logging companies.

“The source of the information on Mr Ogio is on the World Bank-funded Independent Review Reports by teams chosen by the then government that were carried out in the period 2001 to 2004,” Basil said.

“The teams conducted four major reviews of the forestry sector being the 2000/2001 Reviews of Proposed Logging Concessions, the 2003 Review of Disputed Permit Extensions and Timber Authorities under the auspices of the Forestry and Conservation Project sponsored by the World Bank, the 2003/2004 Review of Current Forestry Operations and the 2004/2005 Compliance Audits on new Timber Permits

“In September 2003, the World Bank suspended payments under the Forestry and Conservation Project agreement.

“One of the primary reasons for the suspension was the failure of the PNG Government to ensure the legal compliance of the Wawoi Guavi Blocks 1, 2 and 3 Timber Permit and the variance to the Timber Permit.

“Michael Ogio was the person and minister responsible for the suspension because, according to the legal compliance reviews, he granted an unlawful 10-year extension of the huge Wawoi Guavi Timber Permit to Rimbunan Hijau against the advice of the Forest Authority and in defiance of the National Forest Board

“The reviews also found Michael Ogio as forest minister had behaved improperly by:

•           Giving three unlawful tax exemptions for the illegal Kiunga Aiambak logging project operated by Concord Pacific;

•           Giving three ministerial directives to the National Forest Board to ignore proper procedures and unlawfully award the Josephstaal logging concession in Madang province;  

•           Issuing an unlawful Timber Authority (TA 1-08) for a huge timber authority in Western province against the advice of five government departments;

•           Taking no action against the Forest Authority managing director, Thomas Nen, for allowing illegal logging in Pondo and Tuwapu;

•           Breaching the then government’s forestry action plan to allow logging in inland Pomio, Pondo and Lak;

•           Breaching the then government’s moratorium on new logging concessions; and

•           Trying to manipulate the position of managing director of the Forest Authority – making six different appointments to the position between January and April 2002.

“Despite the clear findings of the review teams, the Somare government never implemented their recommendations to bring the forestry sector into legal compliance, which led to the cancellation on May 17, 2005, by the World Bank of the Forestry and Conservation Project. The World Bank was particularly concerned with the issues of non-compliance that Mr Ogio had caused.”

Basil says Ogio cost this country a forest conservation project worth over a K100 million kina. 

“He is not a fit and proper person to be governor general.”

Basil calls on the office of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth – who is the Head of State for PNG - that Ogio’s election to the office of the governor general should be rejected because of his clear lack of qualifications for the role.

“Ogio’s reputation will also bring into question the credibility and the integrity of this vice regal post representing the Queen, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the 2^nd, and our standing among other Commonwealth of Nations,” he said.

“The other implications are that  Ogio will have to immediately resign from being a member of parliament if he wins the governor general’s post which would either mean:

•           The electoral commission will need to fund another election at a cost of K2 million-plus; or

•           The people of his electorate will be without representation in parliament until 2012.”

 

Harmony unable to stop legal action at mine

Member of Papua New Guinea parliament seeks damages over mine sediment runoff

 

ALLAN SECCOMBE of Business Day South Africa

 

Published: 2011/01/07 07:44:05 AM 

 

 

EFFORTS by Harmony Gold and its Australian joint-venture partner, Newcrest Mining, to halt legal action at its Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea relating to damage caused by sediment appear to have failed.

The equally held joint venture called Morobe Mining yesterday denied allegations contained in a writ "purportedly" served on it by legal advisers acting for Sam Basil, the member of parliament for the Bulolo area, and villagers living along the Watut River.

"The writ alleges nuisance relating to mine-related sediment and seeks damages and injunctive relief in relation to the Hidden Valley mine operations," Morobe said. "The joint venturers will vigorously defend the litigation should it proceed."

The writ was issued despite an apparent deal reached between the parties last month when it was agreed there would be a "constructive dialogue process" and the setting up of an independent panel of international experts to assess the sediment and pollution issues affecting the Watut River.

"The pending legal action now prejudices the ability of the member (MP) and his legal adviser to participate in this process," Morobe said yesterday.

Morobe said on December 16 that Mr Basil had withdrawn a writ lodged with the National Court of Papua New Guinea over the alleged nuisance related to sediment from the Hidden Valley mine, which produces gold and silver and is Harmony’s only operating asset outside SA.

Mr Basil said at the time: "I have not withdrawn the legal proceedings on behalf of 110 landowners who have been seriously impacted by the pollution of the Watut River by sediment and heavy metals from the Hidden Valley mine."

The mining partners have been paying compensation since November to people living along the river for damage caused to their crops and gardens by floods that carried sediment that may have come from the mine as well as natural events like landslides.

Harmony CEO Graham Briggs told stakeholders at the end of 2009 that the higher than expected sediment runoff from the mine had given rise to "serious concern within and outside the company". This was a result of it taking longer than expected to reach hard rock at the mine.

According to an Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) report in November, sediment had destroyed crops, reduced fish stocks, polluted drinking water and affected revenue-generating small-scale alluvial gold mining.

"Although these changes in the river course occur naturally over time, the mine’s contribution to the sediment load in the lower Watut River has speeded up this process," Mr Briggs said.

About $1m was set aside to compensate people in 30 affected villages, the report said.

Morobe Mining Joint Ventures community affairs manager Stanley Komunt told ABC the runoff had been stopped and 2200 individual damages claims were being assessed.

 

Basil and Michaels are new recruits for PNG Party

 Bu M  Bulolo MP Sam Basil and Tewaii Siassi MP Vincent Michaels have joined the PNG Party.

 

Basil was formerly with People's Progress Party while Michaels was with New Generation Party.

They move in the footsteps of fellow opposition MPs Konie Iguan (Markham) and Bonnie Overa (Okapa) who moved ahead of them late last year to join the PNG Party.

"The move now brings to four the number of our faction into PNG Party," they said. 

"There are many reasons why we have decided to leave our party to make this move but we will outline just a few here.

"We believe that there are too many political parties, both registered and deregistered out there, just enough to make almost every members of parliament as party leaders with a handful of party members - just like too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

"There should be at least four or five major political parties in Papua New Guinea because every man and his dog now owns a political party which in the future must be discouraged.

"Every political party must demonstrate and work towards institutionalisation with better policies and management in place.

 "We urge the public and political advisors to help by not encouraging MPs and political aspirants to create new political parties at will, adding to the unprecedented number of political parties we now have in the Commonwealth of Nations.

"The National Alliance Party has demonstrated a working political institution which has remained in power for over eight years now, creating political history.

"The political leadership of Sir Michael Somare and his kitchen cabinet has eroded the ability and the credibility of the single and the biggest political party in power today, and must be challenged, if not now, then in the 2012 elections.

 "In doing so we believe that like the law of the universe,   greater mass creates its own gravitational field that can attract and in order to match and fight the National Alliance,  we must build up to their level and capacity to match them on the battlefield and there is no other better way than this.

"Papua New Guinea, since gaining Independence in 1975 with over a million population, now has over 6.5 million people and we acknowledge here that there are many smart and dedicated people out there too - people who have the heart for this nation and one day can become our political leaders too.

"Our political party system must be seen to evolve as well to see a generational change in political leaderships.

"We say this with no regret because we totally think differently from the old guard, and there are many reasons out there which we need not to elaborate here.

"While at that, we would like to acknowledge the bold move made by Hon Sir Mekere Morauta to allow the PNG Party's leadership into the hands of younger generation leaders like Hon Belden Namah.

"Sir Mekere Morauta, being younger then Sir Michael Somare, has set precedence and demonstrated that PNG Party will now evolve with the younger generation MPs which he will be also be part of as a mentor.

"We urge our founding fathers to do the same because from the 6.5m population, there are many aspiring young, bright and upcoming leaders who will be passing through this parliament one day, therefore, a new culture of political evolution must be adopted.

"We need our founding fathers as mentors now from behind while they are still alive, and not from their graves, because it will be a great loss to the nation if they leave without mentoring the younger generation leaders.

"We would like to acknowledge Hon Bart Philemon and Sir Julius Chan respectively as great leaders of this nation, and will still maintain our close working relationship with them, in within opposition ranks and towards the 2012 general elections.

"Our exit from their leadership is to fight a fight that we all share, but we see it from a different angle, and it is to build a formidable political force while taking into consideration our political future.

"We cannot take on National Alliance from many smaller, fragmented political groupings, because we will just repeat the 2007 general election results again come the 2012 general elections.

"There are times when we humble ourselves our egos and our pride to mass up to match our opponent and this is just what we are simply doing.

"To our supporters around the country, I urge you to think the same because we all share the same sentiments and this is the best option we believe in and have taken."

Watut River Claim Summary

In October 2010, groups of customary landowners along the Watut River complained to their Member of Parliament (MP) Sam Basil that the Hidden Valley Joint Venture (HVJV) had caused massive damage to the Watut and were however trying to get landowners to sign statutory declarations to submit to an 'Improvement Compensation procedure" and accept a small amount of compensation of up to K1, 200 per landowner for the massive damage to the river and the surrounding land.

Of further concern, the landowners were also complaining of skin rashes and stomach complaints due to contamination of the water by HHJV, as well as all fish life in the river being dead. 

 The mine owners, Australian Newcrest and South African Harmony Gold which are the companies that own 50% each in the HHJV, have admitted on Harmony's website the existence of higher levels of sedimentation in the river that had been caused by mine operations.

They did not, however, explain why the fish in the river had died, why the landowners were experiencing medical problems and why vegetation along the river was dying back.

 It was then exposed that HVJV had underestimated the amount of overburden that had needed to be removed in the construction of the mine, but without any structural alteration had stored the excessive amounts in the planned interim waste dumps. 

 Further, HVJV did not even construct competent waste dumps as there was insufficient competent fresh rock - but went ahead with the construction of the mine.

These dumps failed with the first big rains sending millions of tonnes of metaliferous overburden (containing iron pyrites and other metals) into the Watut River. 

 As there was meant to be no discharge of waste into the Watut, none of the landowners down the river were part of any pre-existing compensation agreement as would have been required under the Mining Act if any damage was a predicted consequence.

 Additionally, HVJV failed to construct retaining dams at the Kaveroi and Watut catchments and 18 months after construction began, none of the retaining constructions were even commenced and all sidecasting by HVJV was going straight into the Watut and Kaveroi catchment creeks.

 Both ore and waste at the Hidden Valley Mine were predicted to be and are susceptible to acid generation, so should have been and should be handled with great care, which clearly has not been the case.

 The MP announced by way of press release on 27 October 2010, that was reported in the PNG national newspapers, that he was very concerned that HVJV was approaching Landowners to accept minimal compensation, without any independent verification of the nature and extent of the damage to the Watut and surrounding land and that he going to investigate into both the scientific facts and the legality of the situation and that if the signing of the statutory declarations was inappropriate for the landowners and also if it affected their rights to compensation in any way, legal proceedings would be commenced.

He publically requested HVJV to cease the statutory declaration compensation procedure.

 A letter was sent from the lawyers for HVJV Blake Dawson (a large Australian law firm) to the lawyers for the landowners and the MP on November 3 stating that should any legal proceedings be commenced to stop the payments (the statutory declaration signings), then they should be given reasonable notice so HVJV may be represented in the proceedings.

 Discussions then took place between the MP and members of the HVJV, and HVJV requested that a meeting take place between the MP and his advisors and HVJV to try and resolve the issue through negotiation.

 The meeting took place on November 26, 2010.

At the meeting, Mr Basil agreed that he would not immediately commence legal proceedings on behalf of the landowners, on the basis that the issue of the pollution of the Watut would initially be resolved by a process, particularly:

 

·        That MMJV would provide all relevant documents and reports;

·        That the landowner advisory team would visit the site;

·        That both sides would draft terms of reference and suggest members of an independent review team;

·        That the parties would meet in late January 2011 and should the respective teams differ in their scientific evaluation of the problems with the Watut – an independent scientific team would be put in place to assess the situation; and

·        That the amounts of compensation and rehabilitation would be determined after the scientific assessments were completed.

 

On  December 13, it was reported to Mr Basil that over the weekend of December  11-12, HVJV teams were still approaching landowners on the Watut River asking them to sign the statutory declarations which confirmed their submission to the compensation process as outlined in the MOA – which they are not even party to- and accept an arbitrary amount of compensation. 

This conduct by HVJV was contrary to the spirit and express agreement by the parties on November 26, 2010.

 As HVJV had continued with the process, Mr Basil, as representative of 110 named customary landowners on the Watut River had lawyers file a writ of summons in the National Court in Lae, Morobe Province, on December 14, 2010, claiming against the corporate entities that make up HVJV, damages and other relief on the basis of nuisance and negligence, which was the dumping of the waste into the Watut River.

 HVJV again when learning of the filing of the court proceedings, requested that they be withdrawn so that negotiations could continue. 

Mr Basil agreed to continue to negotiate on the basis that:

·        Mr Basil and the landowners would continue to attempt to co-operatively resolve the Watut pollution issues – in the manner as outlined in the November 26, 2010,  meeting;

·        The proceedings would not be withdrawn but that the proceedings would not be served and that the proceedings would only be served in February 2011 in the event that the negotiations in late January2011 failed,;

·        Mr Basil would however serve the proceedings earlier should HVJV continue to attempt to influence any Watut landowners to sign the statutory declarations or should MMJV conduct awareness on these issues to the affected landowners; and

·        HVJV should issue a joint press release setting out the situation

 

This was communicated to the lawyers of HVJV on Thursday, December 16 and Friday, December 17, 2010.

 HHJV, through its lawyers responded on December 20, 2010, that they would continue with the process of the statutory declaration signing and Mr Basil should still withdraw the proceedings.

 Mr Basil informed HHJV through lawyers on December 20, 2010, that he had issued a press release to inform the landowners and the community of the situation, that he still demanded that the statutory declaration and compensation procedure cease - so that the independent scientific verification could be made. 

 On December 20, Mr Basil was informed through the lawyers for HVJV that unless the writ was withdrawn there would be no negotiations.

 On December 28,   Mr Basil was again informed by landowners that HVJV had continued visiting villages along the Watut to request villagers sign the statutory declarations and for payments of minimal compensation to be made. He advised HVJV through lawyers that 

·        HHJV immediately cease this behaviour; particularly that they desist from inducing further signatures and cease payments;

·        Should HHJV cease this behaviour, then the landowners would be prepared to proceed with their scientific team visiting the site on January 24, 2011, and following that, agree to a meeting with the scientists, the lawyers and the parties to take place in Port Moresby on January 31, 2011; and

·        Should HHJV continue inducing landowners to sign these statutory declarations and continue to make these payments, the writ would be served                                              

HHJV responded on December 30,  2010,  stating that they refused to stop inducing landowners to sign statutory declarations submitting to the HHJV compensation procedure nor making payments.Landowner groups then complained to Mr Basil that HVJV was using bullying tactics and cheating their communities.

Mr Basil was told that HVJV spent the last week of December delivering cheques to communities to allegedly compensate for the damage caused by toxic pollution from the mine to garden trees and crops.

The money ranges from K20 to K4, 000 (AU$8 – $1600).

At the same time as receiving the payments, the communities, who were earlier forced to sign a statutory declaration without any explanation and blank ‘Valuation Sheets’, were now made to sign what are called ‘Damage Assessment Payment Receipt Forms’.

These forms, written by HVJV, state:

I (claimant name), herby state that this claim represents a true and correct assessment of damage and that I accept the assessment carried out by MMJV officers as being adequate. I agree that I will make no further claim for economic improvements damages will be made in respect of the garden area and improvements described above, and that this damages assessment payment for economic trees and plants is payment in full and final satisfaction of my claim

Unfortunately given HVJV’s attitude, Mr Basil and the landowners had no option but to serve the legal proceedings which they did on and January 5 and 6, 2011.

The claim by the landowners is for damages to be paid for the massive damage to the Watut, for the river to be rehabilitated and for the mine to cease operations until the nuisance ceases and proper waste dumps are constructed, erosion controls are properly implemented and the river rehabilitated. They are also seeking punitive damages.Sam Basil denies that the commencing and service of these legal proceedings  prevent any further negotiations in this matter nor does it affect the establishment of an expert technical advisory panel as a vehicle to resolve the “sedimentation” and pollution issues.  ‘An issue that must be determined by the parties or by the court will be the nature and extent of the damage to the Watut and its peoples.  This can only be completed by scientific evaluation.  The next issue to be determined by the parties or the court would be the amount of damages and what can be done to rehabilitate the river and also to prevent this type of disaster from occurring again into the future.

HHJV has on one hand pretended to be willing to negotiate with the landowners and their representative on the issues of “sedimentation” and pollution of the river, after concerns were raised by Sam Basil as to the statutory declaration compensation process, but have in complete bad faith, whilst the landowners agreed to not file proceedings, continued to induce customary landowners to sign the statutory declarations and accept negligible amounts of compensation.

HHJV claim in their press release that the negotiations had nothing to do with the statutory declaration process, when in fact, it was that process that raised the threat of legal proceedings by the landowners in the first place, as can be seen from the initial correspondence from Blake Dawson.

A specialist scientific team will be visiting the site on behalf of the landowners in late January 2011 to undertake their assessment of the nature and extent of the damage to the land and riverine rights of the Landowners, and should HVJV not participate in negotiations, the landowners will pursue their commenced litigation vigorously.

Legal claim for environmental damage served on Hidden Valley mine

Bulolo MP Sam Basil has served legal proceedings on the owners of the Hidden Valley gold mine in Papua New Guinea, seeking damages on behalf of over 100 indigenous families for environmental damage to the Watut river system.

The legal claim alleges that Morobe Mining Joint Venture (MMJV) has negligently caused toxic pollution which has poisoned the river, killing fish other aquatic life and vegetation and causing injury to people using the water for washing or drinking.

Basil says he has been trying to negotiate with MMJV, which is jointly owned by Newcrest Mining and Harmony Gold, to avoid a lengthy and costly court action, but the miners have not honored an agreement to stop inducing landowners to sign statutory declarations that could affect their future legal rights to compensation.

"I am very disappointed the company has broken its word and is still inducing landowners to sign agreements without giving them the benefit of any independent legal advice and without them understanding what they are doing.

“The company is abusing its position and not affording the landowners their Constitutional rights.

"I still hope we can avoid a court-room battle but the company must understand that it cannot treat the landowners and affected communities as third class citizens.

"The mining company could have avoided the toxic pollution of the river system, but chose profits ahead of people and the environment.

“Similarly, it could have avoided being served with these court papers, but it chose to breach its agreement with me.

"The people of PNG have learnt from our experiences with the Porgera and Ok Tedi mines and we are not going to allow another mining company to lie and cheat its way out of its legal and moral responsibilities." 

 

MP sues Newcrest over PNG goldmine

From The Australian

January 07, 2011 12:00AM

NEWCREST Mining's Hidden Valley gold project in Papua New Guinea faces more problems with landowners.

The local member of parliament served a fresh writ against the three-month old mine over flood damage to crops.

The 50-50 joint venture between Newcrest and South Africa's Harmony Gold Mining, known as Morobe Mining, says it will vigorously defend any legal action.

The writ alleges mine-related sediment in the Watut River has created a nuisance and seeks damages and injunctions in relation to the Hidden Valley operations, Morobe said.

Since November, Newcrest and Harmony have been making voluntary compensation payments to communities on the Watut for flood damage to crops and gardens.

Morobe says mine-related sediment, along with landslides and rain, may have contributed to the damage.

According to Morobe, the sediment that entered the Watut from the mine was run-off from mine overburden and construction activities.

Seeking to distance itself from the tailings problems that caused BHP to hand over the Ok Tedi copper mine in PNG in 2002, Morobe stressed it would store tailings and that no mine processing residue or tailings were being discharged into the Watut.

The Hidden Valley mine, which started production in October, is about 300km north west of Port Moresby, in the province of Morobe.

The local MP, Sam Basil, has criticised the PNG environment department and its minister for giving Hidden Valley an environmental permit.

On December 16, Newcrest informed the stockmarket that a writ served by Mr Basil in the National Court of Papua New Guinea had been withdrawn after the establishment of a technical advisory panel to resolve sediment-related issues.

But Mr Basil appears to have changed his mind since then. "The pending legal action now prejudices the ability of the member and his legal adviser to participate in this process," Morobe said yesterday.

The new writ was served on behalf of Mr Basil and a number of traditional landowners living along the Watut River.

Morobe said the compensation payments, of which Mr Basil had been aware, appear to have prompted the writ.

Yesterday, Newcrest Mining shares fell 58c to a three-month low of $39.26, in line with other gold stocks on the ASX.

Hidden Valley is expected to produce 250,000 ounces of gold a year for 14 years from two open pit mines

Claim for environmental damage served on Hidden Valley mine

Bulolo MP, Sam Basil, has announced he has served legal proceedings on the owners of the Hidden Valley gold mine in Papua New Guinea, seeking damages on behalf of over 100 indigenous families for environmental damage to the Watut river system.

The legal claim alleges that Morobe Mining Joint Venture (MMJV) has negligently caused toxic pollution which has poisoned the river, killing fish other aquatic life and vegetation and causing injury to people using the water for washing or drinking.

Basil says he has been trying to negotiate with Morobe Mining Joint Ventures (MMJV), which is jointly owned by Newcrest Mining and Harmony Gold, to avoid a lengthy and costly court action, but the miners have not honored an agreement to stop inducing landowners to sign statutory declarations that could affect their future legal rights to compensation.

“I am very disappointed the company has broken its word and is still inducing landowners to sign agreements without giving them the benefit of any independent legal advice and without them understanding what they are doing,” he said.

“The company is abusing its position and not affording the landowners their constitutional rights.

“I still hope we can avoid a courtroom battle but the company must understand that it cannot treat the landowners and affected communities as third-class citizens.

“The mining company could have avoided the toxic pollution of the river system, but chose profits ahead of people and the environment.

“Similarly, it could have avoided being served with these court papers, but it chose to breach its agreement with me.

“The people of PNG have learnt from our experiences with the Porgera and Ok Tedi mines and we are not going to allow another mining company to lie and cheat its way out of its legal and moral responsibilities.”

 

Basil asks why no action on Taiwan diplomatic scandal

Bulolo MP Sam Basil is asking why there have been no criminal investigations into Papua New Guinea of politicians implicated in the Taiwanese cash for diplomatic recognition scandal.

His call follows news that the authorities in Taiwan have announced new charges against a middleman in its failed bid to buy diplomatic recognition from PNG by using the Taiwanese people’s money.

"Why have authorities in PNG not investigated the sideline Prime Minister Michael Somare, Planning Minister Paul Tiensten, and Forests Minister Timothy Bonga,  who are all alleged to have met with the Taiwanese middlemen?” Basil said today.

"If Taiwan can investigate, charge, prosecute and convict people involved in this scandal at their end, what is the excuse for our own authorities not to have acted at this end?”

Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted Wu Shih-tsai on breach of trust charges and recommended he be sentenced to four years jail for embezzling US$29.8 million in government funds.

The money was wired to a Singapore bank held by Wu and Ching Chi-ju in September 2006 to be used to establish diplomatic ties with PNG.

The funds were completely removed from the bank account between November and December 2006.

Wu is already serving a 30-month sentence after being convicted in 2008 on charges of forgery and making false accusations in relation to the PNG matter.

Investigations into other suspects in Taiwan, including the secretary-general of the national security council and a former minister are still ongoing. “The Taiwanese deal adds to other many issues such as the Moti saga, National Provident Fund saga and the list goes on,” Basil said.

 “Today many Papua New Guinean have lost faith in our own institutions and

are now asking many questions, even suggesting a neutral Police Commissioner or Chief Justice from abroad to come and take control of our institutions.

“I believe that there are politicians who are supposed to be prosecuted, dismissed or locked up in jail are now actively serving in parliament and that the situation itself is very scary, and the citizens must be concerned of this too.”

 

Jailed diplomatic broker indicted on new charge

Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) A diplomatic middleman in Taiwan's failed bid to forge diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea in 2006 was indicted Wednesday on breach of trust charges.

Prosecutors recommended that Wu Shih-tsai (pictured above), who is serving time in a local jail for other offenses, be given a 4.5-year prison sentence for embezzling US$29.8 million in government funds along with his accomplice.
The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said in the indictment that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wired the money into a joint account held by Wu and Ching Chi-ju in a Singapore bank in September 2006 to be used to facilitate the establishment of diplomatic ties between Taiwan and the Pacific country.
The diplomatic bid failed, but the duo did not return the funds to the ministry, which found out later that the funds had been completely withdrawn from the bank account between November and December that year.
Wu was arrested by law enforcement authorities when the scandal came to light at the end of former President Chen Shui-bian's second term in May 2008, but Ching managed to flee to the United States.
As the case involved confidential information, the prosecutors office did not reveal details of the results of its investigation in accordance with provisions of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act.
They would only say that Wu was indicted for breach of trust because he siphoned off government funds after failing to fulfill his promised mission.
As Wu is a civilian with no official function, he can only be indicted based on the Criminal Code rather than the Anti-Corruption Statute that mainly applies to corrupt dealings by public functionaries, prosecutors said.
They also asked the court to freeze any funds in Wu's bank accounts and confiscate all real estate holdings under his name.
The government has pursued other means to recover the embezzled funds. In a civil suit filed in Singapore by the Foreign Ministry, a Singaporean court ruled that Taiwan was entitled to the sum of US$29.8 million plus interest earned on the account between the deposit date and the verdict date.
A ministry statement issued last May said it believed that at least US$10.52 million of the lost funds could be retrieved, pointing to the US$6 million frozen in a Singapore account in Ching's name and the US$3 million in a Singapore account held by Wu.
The ministry has successfully retrieved about US$7 million of the lost funds to date.
Wu is presently serving time in a Taiwan jail after he was convicted in October 2008 on charges of forgery and making false accusations related to the Papua New Guinea case and on an unrelated cigarette smuggling charge.
He was sentenced to 30 months in jail and began serving the sentence in May 2009.
Prosecutors said investigations of other suspects in the case, including Chiou I-jen, secretary-general of the National Security Council, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang, are still ongoing. They are also investigating whether other former and incumbent officials are involved in the case.
Wu's accomplice Ching is on the wanted list.