Theindonesiatoday.com - The dispute between Amungme tribe from Timika, Papua and mining company PT Freeport Indonesia is not over yet. After the South Jakarta District Court rejected his lawsuit, Titus Natkime, who represents Amungme tribe as plaintiff, has filed an appeal to the Jakarta High Court. Kontan newspaper quoted Heber Sihombing, attorney of Titus Natkime, saying his client filed an appeal because the trial at South Jakarta District Court was not in accordance with the procedural law. The defendant has not filed an answer to the lawsuit. Heber believes panel of judges were wrongly interpreted the Supreme Court Regulation No 1/2002 about class action.
Bisnis Indonesia quoted Heber saying the statement of appeal has been filed on 23 February. However, the Memorandum of Appeal has not been submitted because his party has yet to receive the copy file of the verdict from South Jakarta District Court. Heber said the class action lawsuit adopted by his party, is a system of option in and option out, so that members of the group are not mentioned in detail, only members in the same boat which were included in the lawsuit. He also said the Panel of Judges have been mistaken in understanding the mechanism of compensation distribution concerning to the implementation of the decision later on. Supposedly, he said, the compensation distribution committee is established by the Panel of Judges after the verdict. Attorney of Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice (IHCS), Ecoline Situmorang, said that Titus has a right to file an appeal, but according to her it won’t make any difference. Titus didn't socialize the lawsuit about customary right of the land controlled by Amungme tribe. Titus and his group are demanding $30 billion in compensation from Freeport for what they called 42-year exploitation of more than 2 million hectares of land. Kontan quoted Ramdani Sirait, spokesperson of Freeport Indonesia, saying the US-based mining giant has fulfilled its obligations to the community. He also claimed that Freeport is a pioneer in compensating customary rights in Indonesia's mining industry. (Theindonesiatoday.com)