NGOs, students project military involvement in IMK case
Wednesday, April 12 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
Non governmental organizations and students expressed their protest on Tuesday over the role of the military in cleaning up the mining site of gold mining firm PT Indo Muro Kencana (IMK) from traditional miners, the Kapos daily reported.
The protesters urged the local authority to withdraw the military involvement.
NGO activist Ganefo said that the sweeping by the military against the traditional miners would create negative consequences because of the military's brutal approach.
He said that the authority, IMK, and the traditional miners should find better ways to solve the problem.
Thousands of traditional miners had occupied part of the mining site of IMK, an Indonesian-Australian joint venture.
Central Kalimantan Governor Asmawi Agani admitted that the contract given to IMF had been wrong from the start because part of the cultural land belonging to the local people was included.
He said that this should be a valuable lesson for future contract design.
But Asmawi said that he would still use the help of the military to clean up the disputed mining site. He said that there wouldn't be brutal action. (*)