Jakarta – Prosecutors have again rejected the dossier of a mud volcano case because police insist human error, not an earthquake, was behind the disaster that has been devastating Sidoarjo, East Java, for more than two years.
"The case file is with the police. We returned it for the fourth time," said East Java senior prosecutor Mulyono, as quoted by Antara, on Saturday in Surabaya.
He said different opinions among experts about the cause of the mudflow made it difficult for them to complete the case.
Mulyono said the experts were divided over whether the mudflow was caused by the volcano erupting after a powerful earthquake in Yogyakarta or by the drilling for gas by private company PT Lapindo Brantas, owned by the family of welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie.
If the cause is not determined, Lapindo could be acquitted from all charges, Mulyono said.
"So expert witnesses accusing Lapindo should be very clear about how it happened," he said.
However, police said the prosecutors wanted the varying opinions to be included in the dossier, while the police were certain the gas drilling carried out by Lapindo unleased the mudflow.
National Police chief Gen. Sutanto confirmed his office believed Lapindo was to blame and questioned the East Java prosecutor's office on why it considered the dossier incomplete.
"The prosecutors are the problem. What else do the witnesses want? We have already fulfilled all requirements," National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said at a hearing Friday night with the House of Representatives' Commission III for legal affairs.
He was quoted by Kompas daily as saying the police were completing the mudflow case file.
National Police chief of criminal detectives Insp. Gen. Hendarso Danuri said his office had strong evidence based on testimonies from independent scientists that Lapindo's negligence was to blame for the Sidoarjo disaster.
He said Lapindo was negligent because it did not install protective casing in the borehole during the drilling process.
But the prosecutors asked the police to include statements from expert witnesses presented by Lapindo in the case file, Hendarso said at the same hearing. "Of course, Lapindo's witnesses would say it was a natural disaster," he said.
Hendarso said the dispute over the two rival groups of expert witnesses had stalled the completion of the mudflow dossier. At the hearing, several lawmakers asked the police about the stalled investigation into the case, which started two years ago.
The volcano has been spewing mud every day since erupting on May 29, 2006. It reportedly unleashes enough mud to fill scores of Olympic-size swimming pools each day. Fifteen villages have been affected by the mud and at least 36,000 people are now homeless.
Scientists on Monday delivered a rebuttal to Lapindo's claims that the Sidoarjo volcano was unleashed by the powerful quake two days earlier in Yogyakarta, some 250 kilometers away.
"We are more certain than ever the Lusi mud volcano is an unnatural disaster and was triggered by drilling the Banjar-Panji-1 well," British professor Richard Davies said, as quoted by AFP.
The new study, published in the peer-assessed academic journal Earth Planetary Science and Letters, outlines and analyses a detailed record of operational incidents in the drilling of Banjar-Panji-1. Lapindo says the data in the study is incorrect.