My Scholarship entry - A Deadly Coal
Indonesia | Friday, November 21, 2014 | 5 photos
In Samarinda, the capital city of East Kalimantan, Indonesia, the coal mining concession is about 70% or 50.724,76 hectares of Samarinda's width. There are 76 mining permits and 5 coal contracts of work which are working in this city.
A local NGO of Mining Advocacy Network (Jaringan Advokasi Tambang/JATAM) works in advocating the local people who are impacted by coal mining activities. The biggest challenge is the massive land exposing for coal mining activities that forces the local people to sell their lands which are mainly paddy fields and fishponds. If they sell the lands, they will loose their source of living and must be fled to other new locations.
By working for several years, now there are some families, with the support of JATAM, are facilitated in keeping their lands from coal mining companies. By facing experiences of terrors and fresh money temptation from mining companies, they issue citizen-lawsuit to the provincial high court against the local government and coal mining companies to provide more support in persisting their lands and livelihood.
It's a long walk, of course, to human beings' right to livelihood and decent life.
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