Rights commission to announce Lapindo mudflow findings

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 02/25/2009 9:36 AM  |  National

The National Commission on Human Rights said on Wednesday it was due to release findings on Wednesday of its latest investigations into the unabated mudflow in the East Java regency of Sidoarjo.

"This will include findings on human rights violations," said the commission's investigation head, Syafruddin Ngulma Simeuleu, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Syafruddin said there were four new findings in the report, which had originally been scheduled for public release on Tuesday.

In its last report released May last year, the commission said the state had neglected the rights of some 12,000 families who had been made landless and homeless and whose children had been unable to continue their education since the disaster began on May 29, 2006.

In that report, the rights body accuses the state of intentionally allowing violations to occur without taking meaningful action to resolve problems, and of failing to restore the rights of victims to their homes and lands.

The report also noted that the government had allowed Lapindo Brantas Inc., the mining company owned by the family of Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie at the center of the mudflow disaster, to explore in an area which was officially a farming zone. (dre)

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