East Kalimantan?s natives support to Kitadin?s coal operation

The natives of Embalut, Kutai Kertanegara, East Kalimantan have laid their weight behind coal company PT Kitadin in its land dispute with migrants, local daily Kaltim Post said on Tuesday.

The daily said five villagers, who represented the native community, had sent letters the Kutai Kertanegara regent and police chief, saying that the land now being used by the coal company originally belonged to them but they had sold the land to the coal company in 1989.

They sent the letters following claims by some migrants that the coal company had illegally acquired their land.

The five villagers said in the letters that the migrants had no rights to claim ownership over the land because the natives had sold the lands to the coal company.

?We sold the land in 1989. All problems have been settled and the land now being used by PT Kitadin does no longer belong to the community,? the villagers said in the letter, adding that the migrants had illegally acquired the land. (*)