Coal mining firm Kitadin reported to Kutai Council for arbitrarily taking local people's lands
Monday, October 16 2000 - 02:30 AM WIB
Dozens of villagers from Tenggarong Seberang who lost tens of hectares of their lands to coal miner PT Kitadin reported their case to Kutai Council. They also complained to the council over Kitadin's waste that polluted their remaining lands.
The villagers were received by the Council's Commission A chaired by Abubakar.
"We have demanded compensation for our lands that were arbitrarily taken by Kitadin for years. However, our demand has never been responded by the company. Thus, we take our case to the Council so that councilors could bride us with Kitadin management," said Saderi, representing the villagers, in the meeting with members of Commission A.
Saderi also explained that the management of Kitadin also closed their eyes over the fact that the company's mining operation had caused pollution the surrounding areas. Because of the pollution, local people could not anymore get good harvest from their farming lands.
Responding to the complaints, Abubakar said that a team from the Kutai Council and also Kutai administration would visit Kitadin's operation on Wednesday to get accurate data about the arbitrary acquisition of farmers' lands and pollution by Kitadin.
"After all data are collected, we will soon summon leaders of Kitadin to give explanation to the public," Abubakar said.
In another related development, people from Cepak Sibintulung village in Muara Kaman subdistrict, were negotiating with the management of industrial forest company PT Surya Hutani Jaya (SHJ) over the people's demand for compensation for their lands taken over by the company.
The management of SHJ was forced to negotiate with Cepak Sibintulung people after the villagers take their case to the Kutai Council. The villagers claimed that 65 hectares of their lands had been arbitrarily taken over by SHJ. The lands had been transformed into industrial forest by SHJ.
"As of today, they are still negotiating over the compensation," said H. Syaiful Anwar from the Council's Commission A. (*)