Joint Indonesian-Australian mining venture halted after string of violent protests at which two were killed

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Indonesia has revoked permits for a joint Indonesian-Australian mining venture on Sumbawa island after a string of violent protests in which two people died and a government office was set alight.

The country's leading environmental group, however, said it doubted the government's pledge was an "honest commitment".

Thousands of protesters rioted on Thursday in Bima, Sumbawa – 1,330km east of the capital, Jakarta – where they set fire to the district head's office to demand an end to the gold exploration plan, which they said would damage their land and livelihoods.

"The preliminary information from Bima is that people were acting anarchist by burning the regent's office … We don't know if there are any casualties," a police spokesman told Reuters.

Many of Sumbawa's 1.3 million residents are fishermen and farmers worried about the environmental effects of gold mining on their land and water supplies, according to Walhi, Indonesia's largest environmental advocacy group.

Thursday's violence was the latest in a string of protests in Sumbawa over the past year, during which villagers and students demanded that Bima's head district revoke the permit for the joint mining venture between Sumber Mineral Nusantara and Australian-listed Arc Exploration. In December, two protesters were shot at point-blank range by police and killed, and another eight injured, in Sape port.

The energy minister, Jero Wacik, told Reuters the mining permit would be revoked but the process would take time. The government's decision to revoke the permit, however, may not be the boon protesters were fighting for, said Walhi's mining campaigner Pius Ginting.

"The Indonesian government has many times made this promise in the past, saying they want to protect the environment, but then their policies still continue," he said. "For example, they said they would stop mining in national parks, but then they changed the status of 'national park' to accommodate mining operations."

"So we don't believe their decision to revoke the permit, as we don't believe it is an honest commitment by the government."

Arc Exploration announced on 3 January its exploration licence had been temporarily suspended for one year since 23 December.

Thursday's protests in Bima follow a succession of demonstrations over the last year against mining operations across Indonesia.

In October, thousands of miners in Freeport, Papua clashed with security officers after demanding pay rises from the US-run copper and gold mining firm PT Freeport Indonesia. One protester was killed and several others injured in the violence.

The Indonesian Mining Association has agreed the government should revoke permits for mining companies that threatened the livelihoods of locals, the Jakarta Post reported.

• This article was amended on 31 January 2012. The original misspelled Pius Ginting's name as Binting.