Cooperatives threaten to "attack" Samarinda parliament
Monday, September 4 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The mining cooperatives in the Sungai Siring area in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, has threatened to "attack," the Samarinda House of Representatives to force legislators to immediately complete the debating process of the proposed new local mining regulation.
"The legislators should serve the interest of the people? We're ready to attack the parliament building and camp there for several days to fight for our aspiration," said one of the head of the cooperatives.
The local Kaltim Post daily said that members of some 17 mining cooperatives had been deeply disappointed by the slow progress of the legislators in completing the debating of the new regulation.
The paper said that the cooperatives could not start mining the coal potential in the Sungai Siring area unless the new regulation had been approved by the parliament.
There has been earlier speculation that some parliament speakers had been deliberately making the delay to allow the upcoming new Samarinda administration to propose a revised regulation to accommodate the interest of a foreign coal mining company. (*)