Hera Diani, Jakarta – Activists demanded Friday that authorities revoke the license of PT Lapindo Brantas Inc., arrest its shareholders, and confiscate their assets, in connection with the gas well that has unleashed a barrage of hot toxic mud on Sidoarjo, East Java.
In a joint press conference, an alliance of environmental, human rights, consumer rights, mining and legal aid activists urged police to arrest and investigate the commissioners and directors of Lapindo and its owners.
The 1997 law on environmental management, they said, clearly states that a company can be held responsible for environmental destruction.
"This case should be treated as a corporate crime instead of an individual crime. Therefore, all the commissioners and directors, not just of Lapindo but of all its shareholders, including BP Migas, should be arrested. All of the assets should be confiscated and used for compensation," said Chalid Muhammad of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
The charges against the corporations, he said, would serve as a good signal to businesses to be more responsible instead of focusing on profit alone.
More than two months after the mud began flowing in Sidoarjo, sludge continues to stream into the neighborhoods, inundating more than 200 hectares of land and effectively closing the Sidoarjo-Surabaya expressway.
Chalid said the company had not pledged to settle the case, but there were strong indications that it would pass along its responsibility to the state.
"It's been over two months but there is no sign of experts and equipment mobilization able to stop the mudflow. Now, the company has even warned that the mud will spread to a wider area, and thus the flow has to be diverted into the river," he said.
"It's impossible to redirect the flow to the river because the sludge is too thick. It seems that the company wants to shift the issue from ecological destruction to trivial matters like where to redirect the mud stream," Chalid said.
Rafendi Djamin of the Indonesian NGO Coalition for International Human Rights Advocacy said Lapindo has not only violated environmental rights, but human rights related to the economy, society and culture, as well as civil and political rights.
"The government has just ratified an international convention on economic, social and cultural rights. The state has committed a crime by showing no political will to make arrests and to charge the company," he said.
The company, he alleged, has warned the mudflow victims not to file civil and criminal suits, saying they would not receive compensation if they did.
Chalid said the alliance would sue the company and its shareholders, and is now calculating the losses associated with the mudflow, which have been estimated at roughly Rp 300 trillion.
"The company has simplified the calculation of compensation. It has told people that the company has suffered huge losses and is on the brink of bankruptcy," he said.