Bogor miners demand permits to buy explosives

JAKARTA (JP): More than 360 stone quarriers from Bogor protested at National Police headquarters yesterday the withdrawal of their permits to buy explosives.

The stone quarriers, who arrived in three buses, waved banners and posters and yelled "We're hungry...we're hungry..." outside the headquarters on Jl. Trunojoyo, South Jakarta, before they were asked to move to a nearby field.

The Chief of General Information at the National Police Lt. Col. Bambang Haryoko told the protesters to calm down and asked five of them to explain what was going on.

The protesters are members of the Mandiri Serbaguna cooperative.

The protesters said they had done nothing for a month since police revoked their permits to use explosives.

The revocation came after police found miners had used home- made explosives. The recommended explosives are those legally produced by PT Dahana and PT Multi Nitrotama Kimia.

Bambang said two miners, members of the cooperative, and one man who sold the chemicals used to produce explosives, had been detained since December last year. The revocation of the permit to use explosives was issued on Feb. 13.

"The police have confiscated some illegal explosives at the cooperative's warehouse," he said.

The cooperative's chairwoman, Istiqomah, denied the cooperative's miners had used illegal explosives.

"The police should not have revoked the permit because it was unidentified individuals, not the cooperative members, who used illegal explosives," she said during the protest.

Istiqomah said more than 800 miners had lost their jobs since the withdrawal of the permit.

She said a quarrier earned between Rp 7,000 (US$2.90) and Rp 14,000 a day.

Bambang promised the protesters could resume work as soon as the cooperative management made a new application for a permit to buy and use explosives for their business.

Istiqomah also said some miners had been intimidated by police officers.

"Some of us, including me, were summoned to National Police Headquarters two months ago. We were very depressed by the police questions which tried to corner us," she said.

She said local police officers had searched the houses of cooperative members as if the miners were criminals hiding something dangerous.

Bambang admitted police had summoned some of the miners, saying they were just questioned as witnesses to the use of illegal explosives. "Police suspected the cooperative management and members knew about the illegal explosives."

He said the police investigation also learned that the miners were exploiting a 23-hectare mining site, while the official permit was for only one hectare.

Istiqomah denied Bambang's accusation, saying the cooperative was renewing the mining permit from one hectare to 23 hectares. "It is still in process."

Meanwhile, a police source said the revocation of the permit was inspired by a business dispute.

The cooperative belonged to a businessman, Jhim Thema, who owned PT Jhim Thema, before Istiqomah's husband, Alawy, took over the business in 1975. Alawy than converted the company into a cooperative.

On April 22 last year, Alawy was killed by unidentified men. The police have arrested eight men over the killing.

Many people alleged Jhim's son, Faruna, was the mastermind behind the killing.

Since the murder of Alawy, unidentified men have been terrorizing cooperative miners asking them to quit the cooperative, the protesters said. (jun)