Govt admits failure to pay compensation for mudflow victims
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 05/29/2010 7:41 PM
Endless disaster: Residents of Sidoarjo regency in East Java express their protest to the government and PT Lapindo Brantas for mudflow disaster which has remained unabated and displaced them. The protest marked the fourth anniversary of the disaster.
Mudflow victims in three villages in the East Java regency of Sidoarjo commemorated the fourth year of the disaster in grief on Saturday as the government had stopped disbursement of fund to compensate their vanishing assets.
Spokesman for the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency (BPLS) Achmad Zulkarnaen said the payment of compensation for families in Pejarakan, Kedungcangkrin and Besuki villages was uncertain.
He said the government had allocated Rp 1.2 trillion (US$129 million) annually to deal with the impacts of the mudflow since 2007, with up to 60 percent disbursed for relocation of the infrastructure.
“Most of the fund has been spent on relocation of infrastructure, but its disbursement was not that smooth,” he said as quoted by Antara.
Based on Presidential Regulation No. 48/2008, the government is responsible to pay compensation for people in the three villages whose assets were affected by the mudflow.
The mudflow occurred on May 29, 2006 by the time PT Lapindo Brantas, an oil and gas company controlled by the family of Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, drilled parts of the area. At least 40,000 people were displaced by the disaster, which the Supreme Court said could not be blamed on Lapindo.
Achmad said the government had disbursed Rp 262 billion out of Rp 520 billion needed to compensate the families in the three villages, but there was no signal yet as to when the remaining compensation would be paid.
Hundreds of mudflow victims held a rally to demand the government and PT Lapindo to take responsibility for their ordeal. The protesters paraded an effigy of Aburizal during the rally.
(Now that was the government, but what has happened to the compensation that was to be forth-coming from Lapindo-Brantas? Kesas's musings again, to mind comes a nice protesters ditty "Why are they waiting" yeah and for how long),
za 29 mei 2010 - 23:17