[Kabar-indonesia] SBY Visits Mudflow Disaster Site [+ST: Bakrie's Cosy Status; Java's Nightmare]

[Joyo at aol.com]

JP (+4 ST Reports):

- JP: President visits mudflow disaster 
  site in Sidoarjo 

- Java's mud nightmare

- Big business and politics: Bakrie's 
  Cosy status quo may be rocked

- Shrimp farmers fear further losses

- Relocated firms demand compensation

The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 9, 2006

President visits mudflow disaster site in Sidoarjo 

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Sidoarjo

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the mudflow disaster site at 
Sidoarjo, East Java, on Sunday to observe preparations for the dumping of the mud 
into the nearby Porong River.

During the brief visit to Siring village, Porong district, the President was 
accompanied by a number of ministers, including Coordinating Minister for the 
People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, whose family indirectly owns Lapindo Brantas 
Inc., which operates the gas exploration well at the center of the disaster. 

This was Aburizal's first visit to the area since the hot mud started to flow 
uncontrollably from the exploration well on May 29. 

No meeting was scheduled with the victims of the mudflow, as the President 
was to attend a closed meeting with members of the government-appointed team in 
charge of handling the disaster. 

Yudhoyono told the team to carry out its duties properly in order to lessen 
the difficulties that the victims faced. 

"The President expects that the discharge of both the mud and the water into 
the Porong River will be conducted as soon a possible in line with existing 
procedures," Basuki Hadimulyono, the team's executive chairman, said after the 
meeting held at Juanda airport in Surabaya. 

Basuki said that during the meeting his team had explained seven mudflow 
development points to the President, including the discharge of the mud, the 
declaration of the disaster site, the compensation process and the preparations for 
the development of a new residential site to accommodate the mudflow victims. 

"We try hard to carry out our tasks. In terms of the delay in discharging the 
mud and water into the river, we plan to have completed the work by at least 
next week," he said. 

Ambotang, a field coordinators, said technicians had so far been unable to 
pump the mud into the river. 

"We've worked around the clock, but the mud is too thick," he said Saturday. 

So far, the team has installed a 1.5-kilometer-long pipe to discharge the mud 
into the river. Another pipeline, to run parallel to the first, is being 
built to facilitate the mud's diversion. 

The sulfuric mud is erupting at a rate of 126,000 cubic meters a day, has 
engulfed eight villages and displaced some 10,000 people. 

Meanwhile, Attoillah of the Surabaya chapter of the Legal Aid Institute said 
he was concerned at the way the state had handled the disaster. 

He said the government had not sided with the victims and had ignored the 
principles of displacement acknowledged internationally through the internally 
displaced persons act. He said the state should have provided a guarantee to the 
victims that they would receive decent livelihoods and housing. 

"In reality, however, the state has not given any assurance of the victims' 
rights. The state is functioning only as a facilitator between the victims and 
Lapindo," he said. 

Attoillah said the facilitatory role meant the President's team had offered 
compensation to the victims but that the negotiation process would take some 
time, while the victims were still living in a miserable situation. 

He said there was no punishment for the violation of the displacement 
measures aside from a moral one and that the state needed to provide a just 
settlement for its citizens. 

-------------------------------------

The Straits Times (Singapore)
Monday, October 9, 2006

Java's mud nightmare

Four months after a drilling accident, hot mud is still spewing out,
burying villages and wrecking livelihoods. Indonesia Correspondent
Devi Asmarani reports from Sidoarjo, East Java.

THE rotting stench of sulphur from a pool of thick mud outside her
shophouse still makes Mrs Sri Harini, 55, queasy, even after a month.

A 3m-high embankment on the other side of the street, in Kedungbendo
village, has been built to stop the sludge flooding her part of the
village, as it did three months ago.

Back then, she and her husband, along with hundreds of other
villagers, had to evacuate for two months while the area was cleared.

Since returning, however, they have suffered illnesses ranging from
daily headaches and nausea to skin rashes from contaminated water.

Meanwhile, her grandchildren who live nearby suffer asthma and sinus
problems from the dust caused by hundreds of trucks passing through
the village daily, carrying sand and rocks to fortify the area's dykes
and canals.

'I wish we could move somewhere, but we just bought this place and
moved here last year,' says Mrs Sri, who runs a convenience store with
her retired husband.

Neighbour Yuli Astari, 36, complains that business at her beauty salon
has plummeted by more than half.

'My customers moved away because their houses are uninhabitable - I'm
lucky if I have one customer in three days,' she said, pointing over
the embankment to a cluster of homes still inundated by mud and water.

But they are better off than thousands of others here in the district of 
Porong.

Since a drilling accident at a natural gas exploration site on May 29
released a torrent of hot mud from underground, brown sludge has
swallowed nearly 2,000 homes across four villages. Every day, a
10m-wide crater spews 126,000 cu m of gurgling hot mud, enough to
cover a football field about 25m deep.

Engineers, contractors and soldiers have been working round the clock
on an ever-expanding network of dykes to contain the mud flow, but it
has continued to spill across more residential areas and paddy fields,
as well as closing a major toll road for weeks.

Now the disaster threatens to submerge a rail line linking Surabaya,
Indonesia's second-largest city, with other Javanese towns. About 8
million cu m of mud - enough to fill 2,000 Olympic-size swimming pools
- covers an area about the size of Toa Payoh in Singapore.

Adding to the danger is the fact that the ground is sinking by 2cm a
day, experts say.

Last week, a government team assigned with tackling the mud crisis
declared the site a danger zone and ordered about 11,000 residents to
relocate permanently.

Until recently, the displaced villagers have sought refuge in
temporary shelters such as a newly built market complex nearby.

Last month, Lapindo Brantas, the company responsible for the accident,
awarded 5 million rupiah (S$850) to every affected family to cover the
cost of renting a house for two years, 500,000 rupiah for the cost of
relocation and 300,000 rupiah per person in living costs for the next
six months.

But that is just temporary relief for those who have lost their homes,
businesses, paddy fields and livelihoods.

The National Mitigation Team for Mudflow Crisis, which is coordinating
efforts to resolve the crisis, has offered residents either
resettlement or cash to buy new homes.

Sidoarjo Regent Win Hendrarso's administration has already found a
500ha site and aims to complete work in two years, but most of the
displaced people who spoke to The Straits Times said they would prefer
the cash.

During a recent meeting, only one of the four villages agreed to a
resettlement.

-----------------------------------------

The Straits Times (Singapore)
Monday, October 9, 2006

Big business and politics: Cosy status quo may be rocked

Azhar Ghani, Indonesian Bureau Chief

JAKARTA - TWO weeks ago, a group of environmentalists literally laid
the Sidoarjo problem at the doorstep of Coordinating Minister for
People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie.

They dumped 700kg of mud from the disaster site outside his Jakarta office.

They demanded he assume responsibility for the crisis because his
family controls PT Lapindo Brantas, blamed for triggering the mudflow.

Although the minister quit the family business when he accepted a
government post in 2004, the activists insist that he is still liable.

The mud-dumping incident is not the first time someone has tried to
pin the four-month-old disaster on the minister. Even though he
distanced himself from Lapindo very early on, there have been similar
calls from other civic groups.

Indeed, Mr Aburizal's link to Lapindo has made him a potential
public-hate figure in the Sidoarjo saga.

This is no surprise because 30 years under the Suharto regime has bred
deep distrust of big politically connected corporations among
Indonesians.

And not many in Indonesia come bigger than the Bakrie Group. Forbes
Asia's latest rich-list for Indonesia put the minister and his family
at No. 6, with a net worth of US$1.2 billion (S$1.9 billion).

Yet, analysts have noted that Mr Aburizal has managed to stay
politically unscathed - something they believe is no accident.

They say there appears to be a tacit understanding on the part of both
the government and the Bakries to avoid a confrontation with the
people.

Despite being Indonesia's social affairs czar, Mr Aburizal is
conspicuously absent from the inter-ministry panel set up by the
government last month to deal with the Sidoarjo situation and its
humanitarian fallout.

The reason, said political analyst Bactiar Effendi, was probably to
avoid putting him in a position which could lead to damaging
allegations of conflict of interest.

The government has also distanced itself from the disaster right from
the start, saying it is a private-sector problem for which Lapindo
should bear full responsibility and costs.

For four months, it refused to be drawn in, sitting on the sidelines
and watching Lapindo deal with the problem. This also served another
purpose: it fed the public's desire to exact its pound of flesh from a
Big Bad Corporation.

Even when the government intervened last month after it became clear
that Lapindo would not be able to cope, it made it quite clear that it
would demand that the company pick up the bill.

On their part, the Bakries have ensured that Lapindo continues playing
the role of the repentant corporate citizen.

Lapindo said it will allocate US$140 million to cover all expenses,
and had already spent US$70 million on operational costs and payouts
to victims by mid-September.

So far, walking the thin, invisible line has served both the
government and the Bakries well.

Despite its belated response to the disaster, the government has
actually earned plaudits for sticking to its guns and saying that the
responsibility is Lapindo's.

It has also kept Golkar - the biggest party in Parliament with 23 per
cent of the seats and a vital support base for the administration -
happy by not allowing a senior party member to be hung out to dry.
This also works well for the Bakries.

Political analyst Arbi Sanit also notes that if Mr Aburizal were
allowed to take a fall, it would make it easier for other politicians
with business interests, such as Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, to be
dragged down by the sins of the companies linked to them.

Observers say the cosy status quo would be rocked only if either the
government or the Bakries back out of the unspoken understanding.

They believe this could well happen if the disaster drags on - when
the cost of underwriting the rehabilitation of Sidoarjo becomes too
much even for the Bakries' deep pockets.

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The Straits Times (Singapore)
Monday, October 9, 2006

Shrimp farmers fear further losses

THE pipes are still being laid and the pumps have yet to begin
discharging brown sludge into the river, but the shrimp farmers have
already sounded the alarm.

Over the past month, they have seen their shrimps dying in the ponds
dotting villages in Sidoarjo when hastily built embankments collapsed
under the onslaught of the mud flows.

The disaster has hit 6,800ha of shrimp ponds, or almost half of the
total in the regency of Sidoarjo, cutting production by 30 per cent.

And now that the government has approved dumping the sludge into the
nearby Porong River, the shrimp farmers fear more losses are imminent.

Experts and scientists have ruled out toxicity in the sludge, which
has submerged nearly 2,000 homes after a drilling accident at a
natural gas exploration site in May.

But environmentalists say that with at least 25,000 cu m of sludge
being pumped into the river each day, the ecosystem as well as the
livelihood of people relying on the river and the sea are at stake.

Non-governmental group Greenomics Indonesia predicts that 183,000
tonnes of fishery products will be threatened by such a move, bringing
an estimated loss of 1.26 trillion rupiah (S$200 million) a year.

But geologists, scientists and a team of engineers working on solving
the crisis believe there is no other way.

Continuing to contain the mud through the network of hastily built
dams poses risks of more embankment breaches and could further widen
the disaster site, they say.

However, other engineers working on the disaster site disagree,
believing there is still a way out.

Mr Basuki Hadimulyo, who heads the National Mitigation Team for
Mudflow Crisis, says reservoir engineers believe the disaster was
caused by a blowout at a depth of 9,000m.

To stop the mudspill, they believe they must find the hole, using
relief well technology, he says.

But he adds: 'We are prepared for the worst-case scenario that this
mudflow can't be stopped, because we don't want the government and
villagers to be buoyed by misguided optimism.'

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The Straits Times (Singapore)
Monday, October 9, 2006

Relocated firms demand compensation

THE profits of businesses in this industrial town have also been
buried under the mud, and some are fighting for compensation.

There is not yet any official data on the losses caused by the
disaster, but non-governmental organisation Greenomics estimates them
at 33.27 trillion rupiah (S$5.7 billion) at least.

Porong district was home to dozens of factories and cottage industries
producing items from leather goods and watches to cheap cigarettes and
alcoholic beverages.

Watch producer PT Catur Putra Surya was one of the first factories
inundated by the mud after the blowout in late May.

Located just 100m from the blowout site, the factory stopped
production and evacuated its 154 personnel two weeks after the blowout
as the mud rose to knee height.

The company's general manager, Mr S.H. Ritonga, reckons they lost 48
billion rupiah in just property, machinery and materials, never mind
the value of lost production.

Lapindo Brantas, the gas exploration company responsible for the
disaster, has agreed on a package deal that includes paying the
workers a minimum wage, footing the companies' evacuation bills, and
covering the cost of temporary relocation and losses.

But some companies say they have not received what was promised and
are also demanding compensation for permanent relocation.

Smaller-scale businessmen like Mr Anwar Haryono, who owns a small
factory making toiletries, face a similar plight.

He has moved operations to a rented house 3km away and still manages
to employ his 10 workers, but with sales down by at least 40 per cent,
he fears for the future.

But some people are trying to turn the disaster into a business opportunity.

Mr Bagus Haryosuseno, who heads the Association of Indonesia's Young
Enterpreneurs (HIPMI), says he is mobilising its members to begin a
new business making bricks or roof tiles out of sludge from the
disaster site.

DEVI ASMARANI

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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