Locals may sue Newmont over land dispute
Friday, June 30 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
PT Newmont Minahasa Raya may again face a legal suit from the local people if the United States-based mining operator refused to increase the compensation payment for their land, Tempo Interaktif reported on Friday.
The lawyer of the protesting villagers said that his office and the local residents were still collecting new proofs and other evidence to back up their demand.
The protests continued on Thursday and the road leading to the company's mining operations in the district of Ratatotok, Minahasa was still blocked by the protesters, the company's general manager Paul Lahti said.
Lahti said the company would pay the additional compensation payment only if there were misappropriation during the compensation settlement years ago. "But if we are required to give additional compensation for every inch of the mining site, the company would certainly go bankrupt," he said.
He said that the company, which has allocated billions of rupiah for the community development, might better close its operation if it was forced to make such payment.
The villagers demanded the company to give an additional compensation for their land included in the mining company's gold mining area. They said that the Rp 2,500 per square meter compensation paid to them 14 years ago were still too small.
The villagers said that they were forced to accept the payment a long time ago out of fears that the government would punish them if they refused.
Newmont Minahasa, which was taken to court by the local government few months ago for not paying local tax has been bombarded with protests during the last several months. The legal suit was dropped after the company agreed to pay the tax but many more protests especially relayed to pollution charges have emerged since then. (*)