Victims await compensation two years after mudflow

Ridwan Max Sijabat ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 05/17/2008 11:15 AM  |  Headlines

Some 600 victims of the Lapindo mudflow in the East Java regency of Sidoarjo say for two years they have not received any compensation from the government or Lapindo Brantas, the company at the center of the disaster.

Speaking on Friday during a visit to The Jakarta Post office, victim representative Pitanto said that besides obtaining no protection from the government or compensation from the company, non-governmental organizations have failed to provide strenuous legal advocacy for victims.

He also claimed that most media outlets had been paid off to ignore the environmental crime in Sidoarjo.

"Despite the situation, the victims will remain firm in their demands until Lapindo pays them cash compensation, in accordance with the rates set out by Presidential Instruction No. 14/2006 on the social impacts of the mudflow," he said.

According to the presidential instruction, owners of farmland are to be compensated Rp 500,000 per square meter, housing land Rp 1 million per square meter and buildings Rp 1.5 million per square meter.

The 600 victims are among thousands of families living in four villages that have been inundated by mud flowing out of Lapindo's mining site in the regency.

They rejected a compensation proposal from Minarak Lapindo Jaya, a unit of Lapindo Brantas dealing with the mudflow victims, because the company offered only 20 percent of the compensation up front, with the remaining 80 percent to be paid in the form of new houses within an unspecified timeframe.

Lilik Kaminah, a mudflow victim and a kindergarten teacher, said victims felt powerless in dealing with the authorities.

She also claimed intelligence agents have intimidated victims into accepting the company's payment offer.

"There is not a day goes by without intimidation, but the more the victims are intimidated the firmer we are," she said.

She said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla had lost credibility because of their failure to force Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, a stakeholder in Lapindo, to make direct cash payments to those who lost property and livelihoods in the mudflow.

Lilik accused the government of taking the mining company's side, adding that authorities also had stopped supplying humanitarian aid to victims and ignored the education of their children.

"After two years, we are still being housed in the Pasar Baru market in Porong where a normal social life is impossible," she said.

Paring Waluyo, an activist who is helping the victims with their case, said a large gathering was planned at the market to mark the two-year anniversary of the mudflow on May 29.

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