Djajanti Group allegedly involved in illegal coal mining

PT Djajanti Group is allegedly involved in illegal coal mining activities in South Kalimantan, according to the police.

The criminal director at the National Police Headquarters, Brig. Gen. Dewa KG Astika, said that the involvement of Djajanti was evident from the finding of around 2,000 tons of illegal coal in its stockpile, along with a number of heavy equipment such as two excavators, three dump trucks, one crusher and one conveyor unit.

"The coal in the stockpile is allegedly produced by illegal miners operating in the concession areas belonging to PT Arutmin Indonesia and supported by coal documents from Karya Maju village cooperate unit in Jorong, South Kalimantan," Astika said.

Astika, who is also head of the central (national) joint team to tackle illegal mining problems, said that illegal mining activities in South Kalimantan had been on the rise during the crisis and had reached an alarming level.

''Because of their massive activities, investigations by local police would be focused on those who provide funding or cukong," he said at a national seminar on efforts to tackle illegal mining.

He noted that illegal mining activities had been hard to fight because they involved security personnel both from the military and the police as well as officials from all related government offices.

In the same occasion, the president of state-owned general mining company PT Aneka Tambang, Dedy Adityasumanegara, said it would need the government's political will to fight against illegal mining actives. When there is political will, it should be followed by law enforcement.

"Without these, I believe, illegal mining activities will remain there no matter how many teams the government has formed because there are strong investors behind illegal mining. One of them even hired a consultant from Britain," he said.

Nevertheless, Dedy warned that the government must differentiate between small and big illegal miners. As for small illegal miners, they usually resorted to illegal mining to meet their daily needs. And measures to deal with them must be different with measures against illegal mining supported by big investors.

According to the national joint team to handle illegal mining activities, illegal miners have plundered a total of 713 locations in 52 districts in 16 provinces across the country, involving 67,000 people.

The government suffered potential losses of Rp 315.1 billion per annum from such illegal mining activities. That potential losses did not include costs to repair or rehabilitate the environment that had been destroyed by illegal mining activities. (*)