Friday, July 18, 2008
Taxpayer Money to Go to Mudflow Victims
Source: The Jakarta Post

The government will issue a revised presidential regulation to compensate more villages devastated by the Sidoarjo mudflow, with the money to come from the state budget rather than mining company PT Lapindo Brantas Inc.

State Secretary Hatta Radjasa said Thursday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had already signed the revised regulation to allow disbursement for victims of three more villages that were initially not included in the government's map of affected areas.

Hatta said the government held an interministry discussion before the revised regulation's issuance because it involved using the state budget.

The three villages covered by the revised regulation are Besuki, Kedungcangkring and Pejarakan.

The previous presidential regulation issued in 2007 covered only four villages, with compensation paid by Lapindo through its unit PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya (MLJ).

Besides the four buried villages, 11 others have been declared unacceptable to live in after they were inundated by the mudflow in February and their residents took refuge in temporary shelters elsewhere.

A number of politicians criticized the revised regulation as unfair, saying some of the victims received compensation from Lapindo and the government while most have been abandoned to uncertain futures.

Secretary of the Lapindo Mudflow Victims Movement (GKLL) Emha Ainun Nadjib and legislators appointed as members of the Monitoring Team for the Handling of Lapindo Mudflow (TP2LS) asked the government to bring the case to court to decide who to hold responsible for the mudflow and its victims.

Emha said the President should appoint a state department to determine the mudflow's scientific and legal legitimacy.

"There's am absence of legal certainty on who should be held responsible for the mudflow, and the government has not decided yet which areas were affected by the mudflow and who are the victims.

"The government should soon have the court decide the mudflow case and whether Lapindo Brantas Inc. is guilty or not. It is not fair to ask Lapindo to compensate the victims for something it is not responsible for," he said in a discussion.

Besides paying 20 percent of compensation to residents of the four villages initially assessed as affected by the mudflow, MLJ has begun paying the remaining 80 percent in the form of houses for the victims.

Some 600 families occupying the Porong market building have rejected the compensation scheme, saying it carried no legal certainty.

Nizar Dahlan, a member of the TP2LS, said he appreciated the ongoing steps taken by MLJ to pay the remaining compensation, showing Lapindo took responsibility for the mudflow and the disaster.

Police in Surabaya have yet to reveal their progress in investigating the case, although several executives of Lapindo have been held as suspects without being arrested.

Hundreds of residents of the remaining eight villages have posed a blockade on the Porong Highway demanding the government provide them with fair compensation for their lost assets.

Indra Harsaputra and Iman D. Dwianto contributed to this story with reports from Surabaya.