Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The government is seeking to sue more companies blamed for 25 deaths at depleted coal mine pits in East Kalimantan that took place between 2011 and 2016 after years of protracted inaction.
The Environment and Forestry Ministry is currently collecting data and information regarding the deaths in order to build legal cases against the mining companies.
"We will enforce criminal law [on these companies]," the ministry's law enforcement director-general Rasio Ridho Sani told The Jakarta Post.
So far, the East Kalimantan Police have named suspects in six cases involving deaths. Two cases occurred in Kutai Kartanegara and four in Samarinda.
The police, however, have declined to disclose which companies are responsible for those cases, saying that "those responsible will flee" if their names are revealed to the media.
Besides enforcing the law, the government has also taken some steps so that the depleted coal mine pits do not claim more lives in the future. "We have taken some steps since the end of 2014," Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar told the Post.
Those steps include ordering two coal companies to halt their operations so that they could close down the pits, according to Rasio. East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek Ishak has also stopped the operations of 11 companies, he added.
"Furthermore, the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the Presidential Staff Office, the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] and the East Kalimantan provincial government have met with 111 mining companies to ensure that they uphold good mining practices to prevent further casualties and environmental devastation," Rasio said.
Last month, the Presidential Staff Office also promised to coordinate with the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and the Environment and Forestry Ministry to handle the cases in the near future.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) have decried the government's protracted inaction in dealing with the deaths, saying that the government had neglected its foremost obligation to monitor mining activities in three regions in the province, including Kutai Kartanegara, North Penajam Paser and Samarinda.
"We have found that the government turned a blind eye toward coal mining companies that did not conduct reclamation after mining activities that led to 25 deaths between 2011 and 2015," KPAI chairman Asrorun Niam Sholeh said in a letter to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
He added that so far only one case had been brought to trial from the 25 deaths. He said further that the verdict in the trial was too lenient as the prosecutors only demanded two months of jail time.
"This thing really harmed justice because it did not affect the owner and decision makers in the company," Asrorun said.
Komnas HAM commissioner Roichatul Aswidah said, meanwhile, that both the central government and local administrations had failed to uphold the obligation of companies to restore unused sites after 30 days without any mining activities, as stipulated in a 2010 governmental decree on reclamation and post-mining activity.
The 2010 governmental decree stipulates that a mining company is obliged to pay some amount of money to the government as a guarantee that they will restore their unused mining sites in the future.
"The government is obliged to monitor their activities. As the party responsible for granting mining permits to companies, the government could revoke those permits if they are found to have disregarded their obligations as stipulated by law," Roichatul said.
According to data from Network for Mining Advocacy (Jatam) made available to the Post, death cases took place in unrestored mining sites owned by 17 private companies.
Three of these companies gained their mining permits from the central government, one obtained its permit from the provincial administration and the rest gained their permits from either the Samarinda Municipality or the Kutai Kartanegara and North Penajam Paser Regency.
Another Komnas HAM commissioner, Siti Noor Laila, said recalcitrant companies had violated a number of human rights, ranging from the right to life and the right to safety to the rights of children.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/06/30/govt-prepares-lawsuits-against-coal-mining-firms.html