East Kalimantan villagers protest KEM

Around 300 villagers have trespassed the mining site of gold mining firm PT Kelian Equatorial (KEM) in West Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, and started an illegal mining activity in the area as a protest against the company which had not paid land compensation claim.

The local Kaltim Post daily reported Friday that the villagers opened the illegal mining activity in the Mura Sungai in Kelian village, and causing a disruption in the flow of water intake to KEM?s plant.

KEM is a unit of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto.

Separately, the paper said that the local office the Minister of Environment planned to take action against the illegal miners, saying that the activity could cause damage to the environment.

KEM spokesman Kasan Mulyono said that until Jan. 9, 2002, the company had paid around Rp 16 billion (US$1=Rp 10,400) in land compensation to some 4,772 villagers.

Kasan said that payment for the remaining 2,239 villagers had been scheduled.

He admitted that the company had yet to pay compensation to the so-called group of 444, in which the above protesting villagers are grouped, but added that the company would only make the payment if they halted their illegal mining activities and stepped aside from the mining site.

Kasan added that only 20 out of the 300 protesters were eligible to the land compensation.(*)