KEM vows to immediately pay compensation to protesting villagers

Gold mining company PT Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM) in West Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, vowed to immediately pay compensation to the villagers whose land had been included in the company's mining site, as some protesting villagers had already set up tents and implemented traditional mining activity at the site to protest the slow compensation payment.

The local Kaltim Post daily quoted KEM public relations official Kasan Mulyono said that a meeting involving the local administration, and representatives of the villagers would be held on April 18-19 in Balikpapan to negotiate the compensation.

Kasan said that KEM was committed to pay compensation as had been shown in the past by paying compensation for around 450 villagers whose land had been acquired by the company to become mining road.

He said that the company needed time to make validation because there were thousands of villagers claiming to own land in the company's mining site.

Kasan also said that the company would not take action against the villagers who had entered into the company's mining site, saying that the company would let the local West Kutai administration to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Oktavianus of the local administration said that the protesting villagers must leave the mining site once the compensation had been paid. He said that the administration would ask KEM to take strong action against the villagers if they declined to move out from the mining area.

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