KEM pays compensation to 431 villagers
Tuesday, July 18 2000 - 05:00 AM WIB
East Kalimantan gold giant PT Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM) paid on Monday a compensation to some 431 villagers from five villages of three sub districts in West Kutai regency.
The land compensation was given to the owners of the land which had been taken over by KEM in the past and has now become the company's access road (42 km).
KEM president John Vale said that because the land compensation payment involved a large number of crowd, the payment would be made in stages and would be completed in 10 days.
A ceremony in relation to the payment of the land compensation was held on Monday, which was also attended by West Kutai Regent Rama Alexander Asia.
Rama appealed to the villagers who would receive the land compensation not to use the money for gambling.
"The long years of fight for the land compensation will be useless if you use the money just for gambling which could be finished in just two minutes," Rama said.
Rama also said that talks between KEM and the Tim Murni negotiation team would continue to negotiate for the land compensation of the other groups of landowners.
The Jatam NGO had earlier questioned the legitimacy of the Tim Murni to represent the villagers, pointing out that the team had intimidated the villagers. Jatam had accused that the Tim Murni was actually formed by KEM to accelerate negotiation process
Thousands of villagers had earlier blockaded the access road to KEM to demand land compensation. The road blockade ended after the company promised to pay the compensation. (*)