Lobbying for Minahasa's Bangka Island

Merty Katulung has grown so accustomed to the incessant roaring from the excavators that he has no trouble sleeping through the noise. His house at Kahuhu village, East Likupang District in North Minahasa, North Sulawesi, is just 300 meters away from the land controlled by mining company Mikgro Metal Perdana. However, he has heard no loud noises in the past three weeks. "Before they worked round the clock," he said last Thursday.

The company's mining operations on Bangka Island off the North Sulawesi mainland were suspended amid prolonged discord between Mikgro and Kahuku residents. Around mid-August, the Supreme Court ordered the government to revoke the company's operation permit, prompting Kahuku village chief Imanuel Kolang Tinungki to declare its activities illegal. The ruling was the result of a lawsuit against Mikgro filed at the Jakarta State Administrative Court by the people of Bangka in October 2014.