Ninety trapped in gold mine
Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
At least 90 illegal miners have been trapped, with at least four confirmed dead, inside state mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam)'s Gunung Pongkor mountain gold mine in Bantar Karet village, Nanggung district, Bogor regency.
The incident happened after smoke from burning tires, allegedly set alight by the company's employees, engulfed the mine on Wednesday.
Survivors managed to take out the dead victims at about 11 a.m., but no other victims had been evacuated.
The bodies of illegal miners Eman, 30, and Abas, 40, were first to be pulled out of the mine, followed by the bodies of PT Antam employees: Aris Purwadi and Oman. They were taken to the Indonesian Red Cross Hospital in Bogor.
Asep Saepuloh, a gold digger who was also an eyewitness, told reporters at the hospital that thick, black smoke from tires set alight at level 1, the bottom of the pit, began inundating the mine around 2 a.m. The fire was allegedly set by two PT Antam employees, Rasid and Trisno, to shoo away the illegal miners.
"When I asked a duty security guard who set the tires on fire, he told me to ask Rasid and Trisno. He said they did it."
According to Asep, the torching began early on Wednesday at around 12 a.m. and quickly engulfed the pit where more than 90 miners were working on the highest level of the pit up inside the mountain, on level 4, which is around 500 meters above the base of the mountain.
"They died from suffocation as thick smoke filled the pit. I knew all of them," he said bitterly.
Cecep, a relative of Eman, said that he was about to start his shift at the mine when he saw thick smoke coming out. "Then I saw Dadang (a survivor) come out of the pit, dragging Eman's body".
Asep said his fellow miners, given their illegal status, had "coordinated with PT Antam security guards" by paying Rp 2 million (US$235) for a group of between 10 and 15 people to gain access to the pit.
"If we carried a lot of equipment, the bribe (for the security guards) would increase up to Rp 5 million," he said.
An officer from the Bogor Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Made Rumiasa declined to provide any further details, saying the police had yet to receive a report about it.
PT Antam spokesman in Bogor, Syarifudin, did not return calls when The Jakarta Post tried to contact him.
But PT Antam security head Sabar told Antara that he predicted "the number of fatalities would be low. Besides, it's not a brawl".
He also claimed that the situation at the mining site had returned to a relative state of normalcy "within a short period".