Indonesia: Mining permit revoked after mob torches company’s office and frees prisoners

26th Jan 2012

The Indone­sian gov­ern­ment has announced that it will revoke the per­mit for a con­tro­ver­sial gold mine after mas­sive riot­ing against the project. The protests were aimed at Sum­ber Min­er­al Nusan­tara a com­pa­ny hop­ing to open the mine on Sum­bawa island.

The crowd, which was thou­sands strong, ran­sacked and burned two gov­ern­ment offices to express their out­rage at the mine which would threat­en the com­mu­ni­ties land and drink­ing water. The mob con­tin­ued on to a near­by deten­tion cen­ter and forced the author­i­ties to release 35 of their com­rades who were arrest­ed at a protest against the mine last year.

Oppo­si­tion to the mine has been ongo­ing for over a year. A sim­i­lar protest last Decem­ber result­ed in two com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers being shot and killed by police.