Indonesia’s human rights commission has criticised the government’s approval of a plan to build a smelter in East Java, saying it should be built in Papua, to promote development.
Updated at 1:48 pm today
The National Commission on Human Rights, or Komnas HAM, has told the Jakarta Post that the miner, PT Freeport Indonesia, is planning to build the smelter in Gresik.
The group says a fair distribution of development dictates it should be built in Papua.
The Komnas HAM commissioner, Natalius Pigai, says the company, a subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan operating the world’s second biggest copper and gold mine in Papua, is guilty of exploitation if it doesn’t open up the province from isolation.
The controversial mine has drawn criticism for its incidents, the most recent being the death of a worker last weekend.
In 2013, 28 workers were crushed to death in a tunnel collapse.
