Indonesian blogger, Ong Hock Chuan, has taken up the case for Richard Ness, an American mining executive falsely accused by environmental NGO’s of deliberately polluting Buyat Bay in northern Sulawesi.
In a recent post Ong invited Wahli, the Indonesian arm of Friend’s of the Earth and the group who’s false accusations led to the arrest of Ness, to put their case at his blog.
This was their response:
“I’ve read your blog and my oppinion is there’s nothing we (Walhi) could discuss further about such topic you’ve thrown on your blog since you started it without critical question about ‘how businesses and NGOs can work together to protect and improve the environment’ like you said in your email below. i don’t know what your intention here but we refuse to answer your call to put our organization in such ‘brutal’ discussion in your blog.”
I don’t know, I reckon Ong’s blog would be much less brutal than an Indonesian jail… where Whali want to send Richard Ness.
Read the complete blog post here: http://theunspunblog.com/2007/01/31/australias-watching-where-is-walhi-newmont-and-the-other-players/
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To read more about Richard Ness, click here and for more background on the trial read Eric’s blog, click here. If you want to know who Eric is, click here.

Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.