Mining companies have been ordered by the EPA to strengthen environmental protection measures before the year 2000. The indigenous peoples of Irian Jaya in Indonesia have been protesting against the dumping of waste into rivers and streams and the seizure of their lands for mining. Freeport McMoRan is being accused of aiding the Indonesian government in human rights violations, says Vithanage, of tribes such as the Amungme, who have been subjected to threats and torture for their protests. In April 1995, the Australian Council for Overseas Aid reported that Freeport McMoRan was accused of having a hand in the disappearance of 22 civilians in Irian Jaya. Sri Lankans characterise the signing away of this valuable natural resource to foreign control, as selling the family silver.
More vehement critics call it a national crime.
Illeperuma says that sulphuric oxides and ammonia could pollute the Trincomalee bay and the surrounding seas. Emissions would pollute the atmosphere. Vithanage says that groundwater levels will be lowered, and rich agricultural land lost, along with natural vegetation and wildlife habitat. With the clearing of jungles, elephants could get pocketed in patches of forest, as happened in Handapangala in the south when the Pelawatte sugar complex was built. Migratory birds would find the tanks where they roost, gone forever.