Raub green rally made up of outsiders, says RAGM

Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd (RAGM) director Andrew Kam has claimed that majority of protesters at last week's Himpunan Hijau in Raub were comprised of outsiders.

"The rally organisers had expected a crowd of 20,000 but police records show only 3,000 turned up. From those 3,000, more than 90 percent were from outside Raub.

"If the anti-cyanide groups had the support of the Raub community as they claimed, why did they need to bring in nearly 100 buses from outside for the rally," he was quoted as saying in a New Straits Times report today.

The rally was aimed at protesting against the company's use of cyanide at its gold mining facility at Bukit Koman, Raub which critics claim was causing health problems among the villagers living nearby.

No complaints elsewhere
Kam denied the claim, pointing out in the report that the company had similar factories in Sungai Koyan and Kuala Lipis in Pahang but had not received any complaints.

He added that the local community had always been supportive of the company's activities.

"Whenever the company organises Hari Raya or Chinese New Year functions for the locals, they would turn up in massive numbers.

"More than 20,000 people came to a function we held two years ago," he was quoted as saying.