Thousands blockade KEM road, facility
Tuesday, July 31 2001 - 03:13 AM WIB
Some 2,000 villagers have blockaded the mining road of gold mining company PT Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM), a Rio Tinto unit and its heavy equipments in West Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, in a protest over slow disbursement of compensation for land claimed by the villagers.
The local Kaltim Post daily said that the blockade had been made since July 25.
The paper said that KEM was currently in negotiation which also involved West Kutai administration and legislative council, the police, and non-governmental organizations.
Legislator Antonious Ngalah said that during the latest round of talks, KEM had agreed to provide some Rp 60 billion in compensation directly to the villagers, but local NGO LKMTL which claimed to represent the villagers rejected such procedure. LKMTL demanded that the payment be made via the organization.
Antonious said that another meeting would be held in the near future to decide the payment procedure.(*)