PIUS Nimaepa inhaled his clove cigarette smoke deeply when Tempo visited him at the end of March. The 60-year-old Ayuka tribal chief sat cross-legged on a wooden chair under a tree in front of his house in Ayuka village, Mimika Timur Jauh district, Mimika regency, Papua.

Ayuka is located west of a stream where the tailings of mining operations by PT Freeport Indonesia (FI) are dumped. From Timika town, Ayuka is about 40 kilometers to the south.