Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Two years after the Sidoarjo mudflow disaster forced 12,000 families from their homes, the Attorney General's Office is still showing no signs it will accept a police dossier on the case.

Police insist human error was to blame for the mudflow, following testimony by geologists and other experts. However, the AGO said the dossier contained conflicting statements from experts on whether the disaster was really caused by human error.

AGO spokesman B.D. Nainggolan said experts were divided over whether the mudflow was triggered by a subterranean volcanic eruption, following a strong earthquake in Yogyakarta, or by drilling for gas by private company PT Lapindo Brantas, owned by the family of welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie.

"We are still waiting for a unanimous decision on the cause of the mudflow. The police have no case if the experts contradict each other on this point," he said.

But the police rebuffed this statement, saying they were certain the gas drilling carried out by Lapindo unleased the mudflow.

"The prosecutors were the ones who insisted on including the findings of Lapindo's experts in the dossier after we had completed it. That's the only reason we now have contradictory statements," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira said.

Prosecutors returned the dossier to the police for the fourth time last month.

Abubakar said the AGO should have helped strengthen the case against Lapindo, instead of weakening it, by leaving Lapindo's arguments out of the dossier.

"Their version can be presented at the trial. Let's just take the case to court first," he said.

Many observers have said a court verdict was the only way to hold Lapindo entirely responsible for compensation for victims of the mudflow.

Emha Ainun Nadjib, secretary of the Lapindo Mudflow Victims Movement (GKLL), said it was unfair to ask Lapindo to compensate the victims for something the company was not responsible for.

Fifteen villages were declared unfit to live in after being hit by the mudflow and noxious gases. A 2007 presidential decree required Lapindo, through its subsidiary PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya, to provide compensation to residents of four villages.

But with more villages being affected, the government was forced to issue a revised presidential regulation to compensate the other villages with money from the state budget rather than from Lapindo. Rafendi Jamin of the Human Rights Working Group said under existing environment laws, the government could hold Lapindo responsible without the need for a court decision.

"All we need is the political will to declare that," he said.

"But it's too bad the President does not have the guts to make the decision. We tried to urge members of the House of Representatives to do something but they also ignored our pleas."

Lawmakers said the Lapindo issue was not their concern, but rather that of the government and the company.