Mudflow victims press on with compensation demand

Friday, April 27, 2007
ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Sidoarjo

Hundreds of mudflow victims from Sidoarjo briefly clashed with police attempting to prevent them from breaking into the Juanda Airport complex in Surabaya, East Java, on Thursday.

At least two protesters, who were frustrated after failing to receive confirmation of compensation payments, were detained by the police.

Before the incident, the mudflow victims, who came from the four villages first affected by the sludge in Porong district, staged a noisy protest at Sidoarjo Legislative Council and tried to disrupt trains passing through the regency.

At the council, they damaged the gate after failing to meet Sidoarjo Regent Win Hendrarso and the head of the newly set up Sidoarjo Mudflow Prevention Agency, Soenarso.

The protesters became angry when they were told that a meeting between their representatives, the agency, Sidoarjo regency officials and council members had been put on hold on Thursday due to the absence of a representative from PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya, which is handling the compensation.

When a request for the regent to explain the delay received no response, they pushed toward the building.

Police officers tried to control the angry residents, who became calm after Win and Soenarso came on the site.

"The residents have to be patient and not close road access. The residents should also directly explain (their demands) to representatives from PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya, who are on their way here," Win said.

"The mudflow victims and I are brothers, not enemies. What we're trying to do is to speed up the payment of compensation," Soenarso said.

In the meeting at the council it was disclosed the Minarah had not yet guaranteed to pay the compensation to the victims, many of whom do not have land and building ownership certificates.

The agency's social affairs division head, Sutjahyono, telephoned Imam Agustino, general manager of Lapindo Brantas Inc., the company blamed for the mudflow, and received confirmation that Minarak vice president Andy Darussalam was on his way from Jakarta to Sidoarjo.

The company has said that it will only provide land and building compensation to those with ownership certificates.

Of the around 600 hectares of flooded land Porong district, only around 430 square meters are listed on land ownership certificates. Possession of the remaining land is recorded manually at subdistrict offices.

Meanwhile, workers were racing Thursday to repair a massive wall holding back the sludge. Cracks started to appear in the man-made embankment around the disaster area on Wednesday, prompting authorities to declare the area off limits, AFP reported.

Bambang Suryadi, from the company charged with monitoring the site, said a 300-meter exclusion zone was thrown up only as a precaution, saying the situation was not severe.