Police cracks down on Indo Muro Kencana occupation

Police, which was criticized for being too soft in dealing with the occupation by villagers of the concession of gold mining company PT Indo Muro Kencana in North Barito regency, Central Kalimantan, has started the operation to crack down on the months-long occupation, Kalteng Post (Kapos) daily reported.

The paper said the regency police had managed to "clear" thousands of occupiers from the company's concession in Kerikil and Serujan during the operation, which started on Friday.

"The sweeping will continue to the Betmen and Halubai areas," North Barito regent Badaruddin said on Tuesday in the provincial capital of Palangka Raya after a meeting with Central Kalimantan governor Asmawi Agani.

The meeting, which was also attended by president of Indo Muro Kencana John B Vernon, and Central Kalimantan vice police chief, aimed at coordinating further actions to crack down to stop the occupation.

Thousands of villagers have been occupying Indo Muro's contract areas since the middle of last year, claming that the land belonged to their ancestors and the company had not yet paid full compensation for the land.

Badaruddin said the topics discussed during the meeting included the amount of fund needed for the operation to stop the occupation and the number of security personnel needed for the operation.

North Barito police chief Lt. Col Sugeng K said the police did not find difficulties to clear the areas of the occupiers.

"Actually, a clash almost occurred. But, after negotiations with the villagers and their leaders, we could persuade them to leave the area," Sugeng said.

Chairman of the Bina Swa Daya foundation, which was accused of masterminding the occupation, Andreas J Oudang said the police detained nine people during the crackdown for refusing to leave the occupied areas.

He admitted that no clash occurred during the operation, but he accused the police of intimidating the villagers. (*)