PT KEM finally agrees to pay compensation for villagers

Hundreds of angry villagers living near the mining site of gold mining company PT Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM) in West Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, finally ended their protests against the mining company on Thursday after the latter agreed to pay compensation, Kaltim Post daily reported on Friday.

The agreement was reached during a meeting held at the office of the West Kutai regent. The protesting villagers claimed they had been a victim of KEM's mining operation.

The report, however, did not say how much money KEM will pay. It only said that KEM agreed to provide compensation for over 500 villagers.

Earlier reports said that the protestingm villagers had demanded a compensation of Rp 17 million each for the loss of business opportunities resulting from the operation of the company, which is now in the process of closing its mine after almost 20 years of operation.

The villagers had staged a sit-in protest in front of the regent's office for several days since early last week to demand the payment. On Wednesday, the villagers took the deputy of the regent as a hostage after he refused to facilitate the negotiation with PT KEM management. (*)