Walhi withdraws from cooperation agreement with PT Kelian Equatorial

Non governmental organization and environmental activist Walhi announced on Saturday that it had pulled out from a cooperation agreement with PT Kelian Equatorial Mining, a gold mining company based in Kelian, East Kalimantan.

The decision was made after the mining company, a subsidiary of the Anglo-Australian gold mine giant, breached the agreement signed in June, 1998 and carried out negotiation process with the local residents through a procedure not stated in the agreement, Walhi said in a statement.

Walhi said that PT KEM has no more intention to settle the problem through an open and fair negotiation as stated in the agreement and it instead chose other alternatives by negotiating the ongoing conflicts directly with the local residents with the help of the government officials.

PT KEM, which started its gold mining operation in Kelian, East Kalimantan in 1992, Walhi and local residents entered into a tripartite agreement in June, 1998 under which Walhi will act as a mediator in solving the problem rising between the company and the local residents.

Walhi said that the tripartite agreement had run smoothly and effectively until the replacement of Alan Robert as the president of the company in July, 1999. Since then, the company has chosen its own way and negotiating the problem with informal leaders who have no relations at all with the tripartite agreement.

PT KEM has been hit by prolonged conflicts with local residents who demanded the company to return their land. The locals charged the company of occupying their properties illegally without paying sufficient compensation payment. (*)