Surakarta – A group of Muslims representing several Islamic boarding schools in Surakarta staged a rally at the Gladag traffic circle here Friday over the takeover of the Cepu oil block by ExxonMobil.

They asserted that the United States and other foreign forces were engaging in a new form of colonization through the domination of economic assets.

"America has intimidated Indonesia to control the Cepu Block and Freeport," said coordinator of the protest, Mudzakir. The protest was apparently inspired by the bloody incident in Abepura, Papua, on March 16.

In the case of gold and copper exploration by PT Freeport Indonesia for instance, he said that there was inequity in profit sharing between the Indonesian government, the local community and the US firm.

"The community development fund is ambiguous, thereby leading to systematic poverty of people living around the mining site. They have never tasted prosperity at all," asserted Mudzakir.

He urged the government to immediately review the working contract with Freeport which he said was of no benefit to the nation.