Villagers protest Bakrie's underground coal mining operation
Wednesday, October 4 2000 - 04:30 AM WIB
Villagers of Loa Ulung, Kutai District, East Kalimantan have protested the underground coal mining activities of PT Fajar Bumi Sakti, saying the underground mining has caused landslide and damage on their agricultural land.
The villagers demanded the company to pay compensations, Suara Kaltim daily reported.
The paper said the local council had recently sent a team to investigate the case and discovered that the company had built a one-kilometer long underground tunnel reaching to the hill area belonging to the villagers.
The team also found that the company had been operating the underground mining since 1997.
According to head of the Kutai Council's Commission B Abdul Hamid, the company had promised to pay compensations to a villager identified as H Ja'faraw Mansyur, who claimed that the underground mining had caused damage to his 2.5 hectare of land, but the company had thus far not yet delivered on its promise. (*)