Blockade on KPC continues
Tuesday, March 13 2001 - 04:30 AM WIB
The blockade of part of Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) coal mining site by hundreds of protesting villagers in the Bengalon area in East Kalimantan continued Monday as dialogue between the local East Kutai administration and the villagers turned into deadlock.
An official of KPC participating in the meeting said that the local authority failed to convince the protesting villagers.
More than 300 Bengalon villagers had made the blockade since February 28, sending KPC coal production to drop by 60 percent. The protesters demanded KPC to pay compensation for around 3,200 ha of land acquired by the company.
But KPC has insisted that it had paid the compensation via a negotiation involving the local East Kutai authority.
The drop in coal output would cause KPC to face another problem with honoring its contracts with coal buyers.
KPC had also been hit by production snag during a long labor strike organized by the SBSI labor union a few months ago.
KPC is equally owned by British Petroleum Company (BP) and CRA Limited Australia.(R. Amoros)