Rights campaigners target mining giant

While shareholders squabbled and voted on plans by director Nat Rothschild to oust the current board, War on Want said the real losers of the outcome were Indonesians.

"The Indonesian people have reaped only negative consequences from Bumi's coal extraction - human rights violations, abuse of workers, environmental destruction and virtually no benefit to the Indonesian economy," international programmes officer Patrick Kane said.

Leading mining union ICEM alleges that Indonesian security forces, serving the firm's interests, severely beat 20 striking workers in March last year in Bumi's Kaltim Prima coal mines.

Bumi plc is led by Indonesian businessman Samin Tan, backed by the Bakrie family and Bumi founder-turned-director Nat Rothschild.

Allegations of corruption, bribery and tax evasion have been levelled against the Bakrie family and Bumi Resources, which is part-owned by Bumi plc.

Bakrie family subsidiary PT Lapindo Brantas has also been accused of failing to pay adequate compensation after allegedly causing a mud flow disaster in East Java in 2006 which killed 14 people and displaced 30,000.

London Mining Network co-ordinator Richard Solly urged: "Investors concerned about Bumi's share price and the dodgy dealing would do well to show similar interest in the way the company deals with human rights and environmental issues.

"It is not only investors who are suffering from the company's cavalier behaviour. It is workers, communities and ecosystems."

Down to Earth campaigner Andrew Hickman said the Bumi affair had "revealed the bankruptcy of claims by large shareholders to be able to police their own activities."

The government rejected a proposed amendment to the Financial Services Bill in 2012 to strengthen regulation of mining companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.

"Surely, it is now time for the government to act," he said.