Villagers hold rally to support a foreign mining firm
Saturday, February 26 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
Some 60 people from three villages in Barito Utara regency held on Friday a rally in the front of the headquarter of the local House of Representatives in bid to support the Australian-Indonesian joint venture coal mining firm PT Indo Muro Kencana (IMK).
The villagers urged the local parliament to put a pressure to the local administration to immediately settle the problem faced by IMK whose mining sites had been illegally occupied by trespassers.
The villagers also called on the local administration to dismiss the Yayasan Bina Sumberdaya, a local non-governmental organization (NG), which is believed to be the provocateur for the occupation of IMK's mining sites.
Meanwhile, deputy speaker of the House Yeskonia S. Tingan said that the legislators had agreed that IMF was an asset to the Central Kalimantan province which must be maintained.
He said that the local administration must immediately respond to the calls of the local villagers who wanted an immediate resolution to the IMK problem.
Yeskonia said that an immediate resolution to the IMK problem was crucial in alluring foreign investors into the Central Kalimantan province.(*)