The world’s leading mineworkers federation, ICEM, has vigorously condemned recent attacks against employees of one of Indonesia’s biggest mines. A military brigade, serving the interests of London-listed Bumi Resources, has allegedly severely beaten twenty workers, causing them to be hospitalised. The men were protesting against the company’s failure to implement an agreement, negotiated last October at the country’s KPC coal mines. Although workers at Freeport-Rio Tinto copper-gold operations in Papua have now won some concessions, following extremely brutal action by “security” forces earlier this year, their own battle for basic rights is far from over. Comments Dick Blin of ICEM: “There always has been an indigenous movement here to stop all mining, and the [recent] strike gave this movement new momentum”.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11631.