Samarinda govt says land dispute difficult to settle

The special team of the Samarinda mayoralty administration in East Kalimantan said that the land dispute between local cooperatives and coal mining company PT Lanna Harita Indonesia (LHI) was complex and difficult to settle.

The local Kaltim Post daily quoted head of the team Fadli Illa as saying that the state land affairs agency (BPN) was expected to hand over its survey result to the team Tuesday.

A group of local cooperatives have claimed control over some 60 hectare parcel of land now being exploited by LHI. The company had assigned a contractor to start exploitation activity in the area. But on Saturday, villagers grouped in the cooperatives arrived at the site to try to stop the contractor. However, a group of armed security officials of LHI attacked the cooperative people, and Kaltim Post said that head of the cooperatives grouping Wardianto was badly beaten by the security guards.

But the paper said that the villagers did not retaliated.

The villagers wanted LHI to stop its activity in the mining site until the land dispute had been settled.

Kaltim Post lambasted the local administration for its slowness in resolving the case.

The paper also said that the cooperatives seemed to have the necessary documents to open a people?s mining in the area. The documents actually stipulated that the cooperatives had the license to mine some 700 hectare.(*)