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JAKARTA, Dec 28 (AFP): A US mining company extracting gold from the world's largest reserve in Indonesia's remote Papua province has paid millions of dollars to military and police there, a report said Wednesday.
A New York Times report on Freeport-McMoRan's Grasberg mine operations said company records showed that from 1998 to 2004, the firm gave nearly 20 million dollars to high-ranking Indonesian military and police, and to military units.
"Individual commanders received tens of thousands of dollars, in one case up to 150,000 dollars, according to the documents," the newspaper said.
The biggest beneficiary was the commander of the troops in the mine's area, Lieutenant Colonel Togap Gultom, according to the report which also named other senior Indonesian police.
Payments to individuals are illegal under Indonesian law, a former Indonesian attorney-general told the newspaper.
Armed forces chief deputy spokesman Ahmad Yani Basuki said soldiers were "not allowed" to receive payments from outside the military.
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