MUARA KATE, Indonesia — More than eight months after the bloody killing of an Indigenous elder in eastern Borneo, police in Indonesia have yet to name a suspect, while community leaders in the country’s coal heartland continue to demand justice. “Our concern is that the problem hasn’t been resolved,” Yusuf, a community leader, told Mongabay in the hamlet of Muara Kate, in East Kalimantan province, following a visit by Indonesia’s vice president in June. Dayak elder Khahirnawati and Yusuf, her husband, explained the troubling chronology to Gibran Rakabuming Raka as Indonesia’s vice president sat cross-legged on the veranda of their home during the visit on June 14. Tensions in the community are running high because of the heavy coal trucks passing through from a nearby mine. In October last year, a coal truck failed to power its way up Mount Merangit, a short walk from the home of Khahirnawati and Yusuf. The truck stalled, rolled backward, and crushed a young motorcyclist behind it. The victim, named Veronika, was a trainee pastor with the Protestant Church of Western Indonesia (GPIB in Indonesian). She died at the scene. She had ordained in the church less than a year earlier. Yusuf recalled that none of the dozens of other coal trucks in the convoy had stopped at the scene. Instead, they drove past Veronika’s body, inflaming tensions further with the population in Muara Kate. Prosecutors in Paser district have filed criminal charges against the coal hauler. However, the local community took matters further…This article was originally published on Mongabay

From Conservation news via this RSS feed