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Tuesday, 02 August 2005
KYRGYZ PROTESTERS BLOCK ROAD TO GOLD MINE
By empty (8/2/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A group of 300 people from five villages in the Jeti-Oguz District of Kyrgyzstan\'s Issyk-Kul Province have been blocking the Barskoon-Kumtor highway for six days in an attempt to win compensation for a 1998 mining accident, RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service reported on 1 August. The protesters want Canada\'s Centerra Gold, which owns the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, to compensate them for a 1998 cyanide spill that they say has killed more than 300 people over the last seven years. Mining-industry representatives say that they paid compensation in full at the time of the accident and that any objections now should be addressed to the Kyrgyz government.
A group of 300 people from five villages in the Jeti-Oguz District of Kyrgyzstan\'s Issyk-Kul Province have been blocking the Barskoon-Kumtor highway for six days in an attempt to win compensation for a 1998 mining accident, RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service reported on 1 August. The protesters want Canada\'s Centerra Gold, which owns the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, to compensate them for a 1998 cyanide spill that they say has killed more than 300 people over the last seven years. Mining-industry representatives say that they paid compensation in full at the time of the accident and that any objections now should be addressed to the Kyrgyz government. Protester Asankadyr Junushbaev told RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service that if the demonstrators\' demands are not met, they plan to march on the Kumtor mine. (RFE/RL)