Local people demonstrates at PT AGM's coal stockpile
Thursday, April 13 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
Hundreds of people from Soato Tatakan village, South Tapin subdistrict, Tapin district, demonstrated at the site of coal stockpile of coal miner PT Antang Gunung Meratus (AGM) on Wednesday morning.
The demonstration was sparked by a quarrel between a local man with three of the company's security personnel guarding the stockpile. The local man then left the stockpile site and only to come back again later to the site with hundreds of the villagers.
Their initial purpose was to find the three security guards, but the guards were no more at the site. The villagers then shifted their purpose, demanding the company to stop stockpiling its coal in the current site, which they considered to be destructive to their health and to their farming and fishery areas.
The protest, which started at about 9:00 a.m. local time, ended at 11:00 a.m. after Tapin Police chief Lt. Col. Taufik Nurhidayat, a number of district councilors and local officials came to the site and asked the demonstrators to disperse.
The day before, on Tuesday, a number of people's representatives from Soato Tatakan came to Tapin Council to express the people's concerns about the impacts of the coal tailing in their village.
They demanded responsible parties to check the impacts of the coal tailing to their health and their farming and fishery areas. And they also demanded PT AGM to stop their stockpiling activities in their village before any study is conducted to access the impacts of the tailing.