Police intensify efforts to oust illegal miners from IMK sites

The local police and administration officials have intensified efforts since Wednesday to oust the illegal miners from the mining site of gold mining firm PT Indo Muro Kencana (IMK) in three sub districts of the North Barito regency in Central Kalimantan.

The local Kalimantan Post (Kapos) daily reported that after the police detained 15 illegal miners on Wednesday, and named six of them as suspects in mining crime, others seemed to be "panicked."

The paper said that many of the illegal miners started to leave the IMK mining areas.

The local police and administration launched the move in response to the issuance of the Presidential Decree No. 3/2000 on the curbing of illegal miners.

Thousands of illegal miners had occupied the mining sites of IMK for months, causing concern among investors in the country's mining sector.

But a non-government organization called the YSBD accused the police of intimidating the people to flee the IMK's mining sites.

The organization said that the people occupying the IMK mining sites were not illegal miners but were traditional miners who had been mining in the area for generations.

Another NGO called the Jatam and environmental watchdog Walhi had earlier accused the police and local administration as well as IMK of violating human rights in their move to oust the traditional miners from the mining sites.

The organizations said that the miners our forced to leave the area at gun point. (*)