Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo – Despite a compensation agreement in Jakarta on Wednesday, thousands of mudflow victims staged a massive rally along the Porong highway on Thursday, paralyzing the main road between Surabaya and Malang.
Carrying banners and distributing pamphlets branding energy company PT Lapindo Brantas Inc. and the government liars, protesters blocked a large section of the road, forcing police to redirect traffic through Krian. Thousands of commuters, buses and trucks had to return to Surabaya and take alternate routes to Pasuruan, Malang and Batu.
Arguments between protesters and the police broke out when the latter tried to stop the demonstrators from impeding traffic on the Pasuruan-Malang intersection. After a drawn-out negotiation with police, the demonstrators agreed to cease their blockade of the Porong bridge and move to a nearby mudflow site.
The protesters were expressing their dismay over negotiations with Lapindo and the government, who had promised to pay 20 percent of victims their compensation by Monday.
"Of the 500 families who signed a deal with Lapindo's subsidiary PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya in September, only 50 have received compensation," said Pitanto, deputy chairman of the Renokenongo mudflow victim association.
Hundreds of mudflow victims from different villages staged a rally in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday, demanding Lapindo pay the remaining compensation immediately.
In a meeting later in the day, the victims of the mudflow disaster reached a deal with Lapindo and the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency (BPLS) to settle the remaining 80 percent of the compensation through monthly settlements of Rp 30 million (US$2,500) to each affected family.
The deal was reached ater President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reportedly lost patience with the company's failure to pay the compensation.
The company was supposed to pay the remaining compensation in a lump sum by December, but the global financial crisis and debt troubles within the Bakrie family business empire slowed down the process, officials said.
Pitanto said the two candidates campaigning in the East Java gubernatorial election had made no political commitment to deal with the social impact of the mudflow disaster.
"Neither the candidates nor the President, who wept when he visited the area two years ago, can solve the problem or press the Bakrie family to pay the compensation," he said.
Minarak spokeswoman Yuniwati Teryana appealed to the mudflow victims to exercise patience, saying the company was facing financial difficulties due to the global economic slowdown.
"We will pay the compensation in accordance with the presidential instruction, but payment cannot be carried out at the moment because of the financial crisis," she said.
The muflow disaster, which engulfed several villages and hundreds of hectares of farmland that began spewing from Lapindo's gas exploration site in Sidoarjo, near Surabaya on May, 2006.