Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo – Mudflow victims from the Tanggulangin Sejahtera housing complex in Sidoarjo, East Java staged a fresh protest Monday near their flooded homes demanding the company responsible for the disaster pay them compensation.
Unlike previous protests, where residents blocked main roads in the town, disrupting traffic and commerce, Monday's protest was more low-key.
Protesting residents reacted angrily after a spokesman from the government appointed national team charged with dealing with the disaster, Rudi Novrianto, tried to stop the rally.
Angry protesters forced Rudi and Aris Setiyadi, another team member, to eat from the rice aid packages provided for residents displaced by mudflow.
During their protest last week, hundreds of Tanggulangin Sejahtera residents blocked the main Surabaya-Sidoarjo highway, the Porong highway and the railway station for more than 33 hours, causing bus and trucking companies billions of rupiah.
One of the protest coordinators, Agustinus, said they would not block roads connecting Sidoarjo and Surabaya as before.
"Although this time the protest was much more peaceful, we'll continue doing this every day until Lapindo meets our demand for cash compensation.
"We've followed the government's request not to stage protests that disadvantage the public, now it's the government's turn to listen to what people want," Agustinus said.
The company at the heart of the mudflow crisis, Lapindo Brantas, has agreed with a government appointed team to compensate residents in four affected villages. The housing complex's residents were not included in the deal.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier instructed the company to start from the beginning of this month paying 20 percent of the compensation to residents who have lost their homes, land and jobs to the mud.
The compensation would cost Lapindo Brantas Inc. around Rp 2.5 trillion (US$271.7 million) on top of the Rp 1.3 trillion required to stop the mudflow, which has been gushing from its gas exploration site since May 29 last year.
Meanwhile, Agustinus said the protesting housing complex residents were not part of a group accompanying East Java legislative council members to meet Yudhoyono.
"I know myself the group is only fighting for their own interests without considering the fate of other victims. We are fighting for the interest of every one of us," he charged.
Agustinus said the group was affiliated to an unnamed political party. He said many mudflow victims no longer trusted the group, which goes by the name Team 16. Separately, Sidoarjo Regent Win Hendarso said responsibility for compensation no longer lay with the administration but with the central government.