Bombana: Blessing or Curse?
Six months after its official opening, the operation of gold mining in Bombana regency, Southeast Sulawesi, was suspended by the local administration this month. Can the government overcome environmental damage, settle land disputes, and resolve security and economic issues following the suspension?
June 9, 2009
WHEN he officially opened the gold mining operation in Bombana on November 1 last year, Bombana Regent H. Atikurrahman affirmed that the gold mining activity in his region would prioritize people’s mining over investors’ operation. “Let the people from Bombana as well as those outside Bombana be engaged in gold mining,” said the Regent.
What happened was predictable. Like sugar swarming with ants, hundreds of thousands of people thronge
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