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TNI admits to accepting cash from
Freeport
JAKARTA (AP): The Indonesian Military (TNI) acknowledged
for the first time Thursday that its commanders in West
Papua had received "support" from a U.S. gold-mining
giant -- responding to allegations that Freeport-McMoran
Co. gave the army millions ofdollars to protect its facilities
in the remote province.
TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Kohirin Suganda said the armed forces
"as an institution" had never received donations
from the New Orleans-based company.
"But we have heard that Freeport provides support such
as vehicles, fuel and meals directly to the units in the
field," Suganda said. "That's the company's policy.
It was not done because we requested it."
Kohirin was responding to an article published Tuesday in
The York Times that detailed Freeport-McMoran's alleged
payments of US$20 million to military commanders in the
area in the last seven years.
Indonesia regularly ranks among the world's most corrupt
countries in international surveys. The latest reports will
do little to raise confidence in the army -- considered
one of the country's most graft-ridden institutions -- or
the government's pledge to eradicate official corruption.
Human rights groups have criticized direct payments by foreign
mining and energy companies to the military, saying they
were undermining efforts to bring the politically powerful
armed forces under civilian command following the collapse
in 1998 ofthe 32-year military dictatorship of former President
Soeharto.
Only one-third of the financing for Indonesia's armed forces
comes from the state budget, while the rest is collected
from non-transparent sources such as "protection payments,"
allowing the military brass to operate independently of
the government's financial controls.
When asked about the payoff allegations, TNI chief Gen.
Endriartono Sutarto would only say, "Please ask Freeport,
not me."
A Freeport spokesman in Jakarta said the only company official
who could comment on the matter was busy in West Papua.
Reports that Freeport was paying off the military to protect
the mine have circulated for years. (IM)
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