Anna Bisai Speaks Out
Anna Bisai is the United Church Minister for the Western Province
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"Ok Tedi has deprived our people of the totality of human right - in everything" |
"My People are torn between Money and Life" says Anna sitting in the relative cool underneath a house in Daru, the Western Province's provincial capital. Daru is on an island in the Torres Strait, just outside the mouth of the Fly river and only ten kilometres from Australian waters.
When Ok Tedi signed its agreement with the Papua New Guinea government it was the signing of a "death warrant".
Anna says that her people know the shocking extent of the mine's impact, "We travel the sea, and we know the signs and symptoms."
She has met with Ok Tedi Mining (OTML) company people on several occasions. She says to OTML "You know the effect it will bring to the people. You are not concerned with the life that people live."
Everyday she deals with people suffering from the mine's impacts and says of the OTML representative, "I want to hit him, for him to feel the pain that our people feel."
"One clan gets about two thousand five hundred kina that's five to ten kina a person a year", she tells OTML.
"You are not talking out of my need or the peoples. You have been stealing out of my land. You have ripped me, you are making me go naked altogether."
The mine like to talk up the projects it provides for Fly river villages. "Ok Tedi is bringing projects to people - rubbish" says Anna emphatically.
"Temporary, it is not long lasting. Up to this day there is nothing good that I can think of."
Our survival she says to the company representatives is "in the sea."
"How can we replace all this?" she asks "after the mine has killed or destroyed"
"Since you are destroying it ... is there an alternative," some projects that will provide alternative lives for the people? After asking this at the last meeting the company never returned to meet her in Daru.
"Everything they say - we don't believe"
"There is no truth in what they say."
"Ok Tedi has deprived our people of the totality of human right - in everything"
She fears "A day will happen when they will experience a second Bouganville" referring to Bouganville island were the CRA (now Rio Tinto) copper mine precipitated a civil war.
Anna Bisai is the United Church Minister for the Western Province. She is based in Daru. This interview was taken on Thursday April the 6th, 2000. Three Kina are currently worth approximately two Australian dollars.
When Ok Tedi signed its agreement with the Papua New Guinea government it was the signing of a "death warrant".
Anna says that her people know the shocking extent of the mine's impact, "We travel the sea, and we know the signs and symptoms."
She has met with Ok Tedi Mining (OTML) company people on several occasions. She says to OTML "You know the effect it will bring to the people. You are not concerned with the life that people live."
Everyday she deals with people suffering from the mine's impacts and says of the OTML representative, "I want to hit him, for him to feel the pain that our people feel."
"One clan gets about two thousand five hundred kina that's five to ten kina a person a year", she tells OTML.
"You are not talking out of my need or the peoples. You have been stealing out of my land. You have ripped me, you are making me go naked altogether."
The mine like to talk up the projects it provides for Fly river villages. "Ok Tedi is bringing projects to people - rubbish" says Anna emphatically.
"Temporary, it is not long lasting. Up to this day there is nothing good that I can think of."
Our survival she says to the company representatives is "in the sea."
"How can we replace all this?" she asks "after the mine has killed or destroyed"
"Since you are destroying it ... is there an alternative," some projects that will provide alternative lives for the people? After asking this at the last meeting the company never returned to meet her in Daru.
"Everything they say - we don't believe"
"There is no truth in what they say."
"Ok Tedi has deprived our people of the totality of human right - in everything"
She fears "A day will happen when they will experience a second Bouganville" referring to Bouganville island were the CRA (now Rio Tinto) copper mine precipitated a civil war.
Anna Bisai is the United Church Minister for the Western Province. She is based in Daru. This interview was taken on Thursday April the 6th, 2000. Three Kina are currently worth approximately two Australian dollars.
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