South Sumatra villagers blockade road to Bukit Asam coal site

About 150 people of the Lingga Village in Muara Enim regency, South Sumatra, blockaded for a couple of hours on Wednesday the main road to the coal mining site of state-owned PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam, the local Sumatra Express daily reported.

The paper said that the mining site was operated by Bukit Asam sub contractor PT Sumber Mitra Jaya (SMJ)

The villagers made the road blockade, which had caused hundreds of SMJ to be unable to enter the site, to demand SMJ to recruit more local villagers.

The protesters also seized three cars belonging to the company.

The road blockade started at 5.30 a.m., and it was ended at around 8.20 a.m. only after 60 armed policemen came to the site.

The protesters could not reach an agreement with SMJ management.

The villagers said that they agreed to sell their land for coal mining activity because they were promised to be employed there.

The protesters said they would continue to launch another blockade until SMJ agreed to hire more local villagers.(*)