Indonesia Wins International Tribunal against Churchill Mining
8 December 2016 13:12 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia won a US$2 billion dispute after the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal ruled in the country's favor against claims filed by British miner Churchill Mining Plc. On Tuesday, December 6, the ICSID tribunal threw out Churchill's demand for damage claims against the Indonesian government.
Churchill Mining has been ordered to pay a total of US$8.65 million to the Indonesian government.
One of the eight defendants, former East Kutai Regent Isran Noor, said this is good news for Indonesia. "We won an arbitration dispute in an international tribunal. This is proof of our sovereignty over the management of Indonesia's natural resources," Isran said on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.
In 2010, Churchill filed the case to the Samarinda Administrative Court after the company's mining permit was deemed insufficient and revoked by Isran Noor. The Court said that the permit revocation was in compliance with necessary procedures.
In 2011, Churchill appealed to the Jakarta State Administrative Court, which resulted in the same ruling. Another appeal at the Supreme Court also ruled in favor for the Indonesian government.
Churchill took the legal dispute to ICSID in May 2012.
The dispute object is a 35,000-hectares concession area in Busang, Muara Wahau, Telen, and Muara Ancalong districts in East Kutai, East Kalimantan. The lands were previously owned by Nusantara Group, whose term ended in 2006-2007. The land then became PT Ridlatama's, from which Churchill later acquired it from.
Isran said that Churchill has violated the Indonesian law on the control of local coal mining companies by foreigners in the form of mining rights. Churchill owns 75 percent shares of four mining concessions.
Additionally, Isran said, the British miner successfully sells stocks in international exchanges from the company that controls a mining concession with a coal content of 3 billion metric tons.
"That's one of the documents that were forged," he said.
FIRMAN HIDAYAT
