Mining Investors Becomes A Suspect Of The Death Of 6 Miners In East Kotawaringin, Central Kalimantan

PHOTO VIA ANTARA

SAMPIT - The police have named a man with the initials DB as a suspect in the death of six miners who were buried by a landslide in Tumbang Torung Village, Bukit Santuai District, East Kotawaringin Regency, Central Kalimantan.

"The suspect DB is the owner, financier, person in charge, and who ordered the mining activities. Apart from being unlicensed, he also does not provide his workers with work safety standards," said Police Chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Abdoel Harris Jakin in Sampit, quoted by Antara, Monday, November 1.

The suspect has been detained at the East Kotawaringin Police Headquarters. The evidence in the incident has also been brought to Sampit for investigation purposes.

Initially, DB employed 11 miners to mine gold on its land which was estimated to have gold potential. He gives wages to each worker ranging from Rp1 million to Rp2 million.

The eleven miners are Dibau, Hendrik, Lotek, Epra alias Ipon, Wawa alias Edut, Muhammad Azimi, Ahmadi, Titin, Yogi, Andre and Ipey. They are not local residents, but come from a number of sub-districts in East Kotawaringin, some even from Murung Raya Regency.

At the time of the incident, the suspect DB, who is a village official, was not at the mining site, but in Sungai Ubar Village, Cempaga Hulu District. Only the miners who were hired at that time were working traditionally using a water pump machine and then sifting the soil for gold grains or powder.

There are six workers under the mining pit with a depth of approximately 10 meters, namely Dibau, Lotek, Epra, Wawa alias Edut, Azimi, and Ahmadi. Due to heavy rains, the ground became unstable and landslides occurred and the six victims died.

"Actually there were seven people who were buried by the landslide, but one person was rescued, while six others were found dead," continued Jakin.

It took four hours to evacuate the victims at the scene. The location of the incident is very difficult to reach because it is far from the district center and settlements. The location can only be reached via the river using a small ces boat.

Jakin suspects that this mining activity is a displacement from Cempaga Hulu District because the patterns are similar. Previously, the Resort Police had brought order to illegal mining in Cempaga Hulu and the case was being processed by law.

Jakin emphasized that the suspect was charged with Article 158 of the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 3 of 2020 concerning Amendments to Law Number 4 of 2009 concerning Mineral and Coal Mining and Article 359 of the Criminal Code. The suspect faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp100 billion.

"This is a problem that we will deal with more seriously. So far, we are also serious, it's just that this location is far away and can only be accessed using a CES boat," said Jakin.

Meanwhile, the suspect, DB, admitted that he did not expect the incident that claimed six lives.

"I didn't think about the risk of landslides because I didn't know something like this had happened. I'm sorry," he said.

So far, their mining activities have been carried out manually by checking locations, digging, and panning. The results obtained are erratic, even never get results. The maximum yield is about 10 grams of gold.