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Wadas villagers turn to Jakarta court to fight mining activities
The Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Yogyakarta), which represents the plaintiffs, claims that the mining activities in the village have been conducted without a permit.
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Confrontation: Wadas villagers face off against officers in this file photo. (Gempa Dewa twitter/Courtesy of Gempa Dewa)
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number of villagers in Wadas, Purworejo, Central Java, have filed an administrative lawsuit with the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) to challenge the government’s decision to allow a mining operation in their village.
The lawsuit was lodged on Monday, with the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s Directorate General for Coal and Mineral the main defendant for issuing a 2021 letter of recommendation approving andesite mining in Wadas to be used for the construction of a dam about 12 kilometers away. The dam in question, known as Bener Dam and which will supply water for irrigation and also serve as a hydroelectric power plant, is one of the government’s national strategic projects.
The Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Yogyakarta), which represents the plaintiffs, claims that the mining activities in the village have been conducted without a permit.
“The 2009 Law on Mineral and Coal Mining and its related regulations contain no clauses or articles allowing unlicensed mining activities, for whatever reason or interest,” Dhanil Al Ghifary of LBH Yogyakarta told journalists on Wednesday.
Dhanil said the legal team would also send a letter to the Supreme Court requesting that it assign a judge who was committed to environmental protection and well-versed in environmental issues to handle the case, which is set to commence on Nov. 8. It has also requested that the Judicial Commission monitor the hearings.
Meanwhile, Budin of the Public Movement for Wadas’ Environment (Gempadewa) asserted that the villagers were not involved in or consulted about the plan to open a mining operation in their village. A Wadas elder, Marsono, said it was baffling to him how the government had backtracked from its pledge to advance people’s welfare and was instead harming the environment and bringing suffering to the villagers.
“We, the villagers of Wadas, don’t want harm to be done to our living space. Our government told us it would improve our welfare, but to this very second, they keep trying to destroy and steal our living space in Wadas. This is just wrong,” Marsono said in statement.
