Campaigners human rights challenged by government and mining company in public forum
Arriving at a Deep Sea Tailings placement awareness meeting at Madang’s provincial headquarters, George immediately became the center of unwanted attention. MCC representative, James Wang, obviously uncomfortable with his presence, wanted to know what an “NGO” representative was doing at the meeting.
The Madang provincial government’s mining liaison officer John Bivi, then called on landowners from Raikos to decide if George should remain in the meeting. And what answer do you get from a roomful of landowner cousins and uncles? George stays.
“I’m from Bongu (Raikos district), I have a right to be here,” George said. “You can’t say I’m from an NGO and remove me. I don’t belong to a non-government organization. I came here as an individual.”
What is it that has made him so unpopular with the owners of the US1.4 billion dollar project in Madang? Three months ago, George set up a group page on “Facebook” called “We say no to deep sea waste disposal in Basamuk Bay.”
Five hours after the page was created, more than 200 people joined. Three months on, current membership stands at over 1400.
The Basamuk campaign challenges the controversial plan by the Chinese to dump 100 million tons of waste into the bay over the 30 year life of the Ramu Nickel Mine. The creation of the page was accompanied with an online petition that sought global support to stop the dumping of mine waste into the bay.
Early last month, George held an awareness meeting attended by more than 600 people in the Astrolabe Bay area. It marked the start of a local push to get at least 10 thousand signatures for a petition which will be presented to the Madang Governor, Sir Arnold Amet on the 10th of April.
George gets a staggering amount of international support from Papua New Guineans living overseas and from scientists and lawyers who are offering free advice on sea tailings placement.
However George’s push for justice hasn’t come without a downside. At the awareness meeting, he was verbally attacked by government representatives who accused him of misinforming people. But he has indicated it’s a small personal setback that doesn’t affect the whole campaign at all.
Late last month, came the latest milestone of the Basamuk campaign when Madang Governor, Sir Arnold Amet announced he was going to travel to Bongu village to receive the petition in person.
All this is happening against a backdrop of an indefinite court injunction that prevents MCC from building a deep sea tailings placement system.