W. Kutai villagers gather at legislative council over land compensation row with KEM
Wednesday, August 22 2001 - 01:00 AM WIB
Hundreds of villagers gathered at the West Kutai regency legislative council on Tuesday to seek solution over land compensation problem with gold mining company PT kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM), a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian giant mining firm Rio Tinto, the local Kaltim Post daily reported.
The paper said that in addition to lawmakers and regency administration officials, also attended the meeting were officials from KEM, National Commission on Human Rights, and the LKMTL, a non-governmental organization claiming to represent the villagers whose land had been acquired by KEM.
The involvement of various institutions is to ensure that no other villagers group asking for the same claim in the future, the paper said.
The paper said that until 19.30 local time, the gathering had not yet ended.
The paper said that KEM had earlier agreed with LKMTL to pay some Rp 60 billion in compensation, but some villagers were not satisfied with the figure.(*)