Activist's death sparks more fears in Bkt Koman

Andrew Ong & Kuek Ser Kuang Keng | May 2, 09 5:17pm

The death of an environmental activist in Kampung Baru at Bukit Koman, Raub, has heightened residents’ fears over controversial gold-mining activities taking place near this village in Pahang.

Chong Sow Pin, 63, was found dead on Tuesday at his orchard some 8km from the village where about 300 families call home.

He is among the founding member of the ad-hoc Action Committee Against the Use of Cyanide in the mining operations.

Officially, Chong’s death has been classified as a heart attack by the Raub district police based on a post-mortem, but residents are convinced that the goldmine contributed, at least indirectly, to his death.

To stress this point, 300 residents turned up for the funeral procession yesterday led by a large banner in Chinese which loosely reads: “Anti-cyanide struggle remains uncompleted and must continue”.

Chong’s wife, Chin Lean Thay, 59, said the deceased was a healthy man with no major illnesses and recently have been spending nights in the orchard to avoid fumes from the goldmine.

Several residents who knew Chong echoed Chin’s sentiments.

They claim that Chong had stayed in his orchard to avoid fumes believed to be emitted from the goldmine which have been causing nausea, eye and skin irritation among villagers.

Weed killer-like ordour

Malaysiakini videographer had a first hand experience of the fumes yesterday when he visited a home which sits only a few metres away from the lake which forms part of the goldmine.

His eyes began to water while his throat became irritated and he started choking, in what he describes as effects similar to a milder form of tear gas.

Residents are unsure of the source and substance which makes up the mysterious fumes. The odour is described as similar to weed killer, but they are certain that the fumes only became apparent when the goldmine started operations in February.

Committee secretary Hue Fui How believes that the fumes may be sulphur dioxide, a poisonous gas which is used to treat the cyanide.

“The fumes is usually felt around the evenings after the sun goes down, depending on the wind direction,” said Hue.

No proper investigation done

The state assemblyperson for Tras, DAP’s Choong Siew Onn, said that over the past few months, he had received 350 complaints from the villagers after the fumes first surfaced.

He showed journalists a handful of the documented complaints - many were accompanied with doctor’s notes and receipts for skin problems and respiratory related illnesses.

“What is even more disappointing is that when the Department of Environment officers came to inspect the area (in March), they were only here for a few hours.

“Instead, they should station their investigators here for a few days and conduct a proper study and take air samples,” Choong told Malaysiakini at the sidelines of the funeral.

Choong said that the residents have complained to almost every relevant government department about the fumes to no avail.

According to Choong and Chin’s eldest son Chook Sang, 36, the once abundant small animals, most monkeys, which used to roam the lush forest surrounding the village have also gone missing over the past few months.

Residents are also complaining that their crop and cottage industry food products have suffered a drop in demand following doubts from purchasers over possible contamination.

All this problems had resulted in a sizeable number of Bukit Koman residents moving away from the area.

In the case of Chin, she divides her time between the village and her children’s home in Kuala Lumpur.

Residents’ suit pending

Chin said that her husband had no reason to leave their large hilltop bungalow house and stay in a small hut in the orchard if it were not to escape the fumes.

“Since December, when the goldmine was in trial runs and when we first felt the fumes, he began developing rashes and skin blisters in various parts of his body,” said Chin.

Several expensive visits to the doctors did not manage to resolve the problem, she said.

Asked if the sudden death of her husband could be avoided if the goldmine was not in operation, Chin replied: “No, It definitely would not happen.”

A suit filed last March by the committee on behalf of the residents against the goldmine operator, Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd, is pending at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Among others, the applicants are seeking a declaration that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report submitted by the mining company to the DOE in 1996 did not comply with certain requirements of the Environment Quality Act.

The committee is also seeking an order to quash the DOE’s approval of the preliminary EIA issued in 1997 and a declaration that the company must obtain a detailed EIA before commencing gold-mining works.

Cyanide is used to dissolve residual gold from the Bukit Koman mine that was shut down in the 1970s.

The waste is then flush into the lake, known as the tailing pond, for the cyanide to break down naturally.

Residents are up in arms over this process, as there have been several disasters involving such mines leading to cyanide poisoning of neighboring communities in the United States, Romania, Kyrgyzstan and Papua New Guinea.