Fidelis E. Satriastanti – Activists on Thursday said that a decision by the East Java Police to withdraw criminal charges against energy company PT Lapindo Brantas over the Sidoarjo mudflow disaster smacked of collusion and conspiracy.
The police on Friday said that they were dropping the case and absolving 13 Lapindo executives and staff of blame in the mudflow, which began in 2006 and has since submerged hundreds of hectares in the East Java district and left more than 15,000 people homeless.
"We have gone back and forth to [the police] and gave them recommendations of experts who might be able to help them with the investigation," said Taufik Basari, a lawyer for the mudflow victims. "However, none of those independent experts have been questioned."
In March 2006, mud began flowing from a crack near a Lapindo gas drilling well, allegedly caused by Lapindo's negligence. The company, however, blames an earthquake in Yogyakarta, hundreds of kilometers from Sidoarjo.
Lapindo is linked to the Bakrie group, which is controlled by the family of People's Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie.
In three years of legal battles over the disaster, police submitted their case dossier four times to East Java prosecutors, but it was repeatedly returned due to insufficient evidence.
Taufik said that if law enforcers' intentions were good, they should have just let the case go to trial and awaited the result.
"We also are aware that the investigation process – especially concerning the testimony of experts – seems to have benefitted the company much more," he said, adding that police appeared to have determined the facts in the case based on the quantity of opinions, rather than quality.
"There were only three experts saying that [the mudflow] was caused by drilling activities," he said, "but there were nine experts saying that it was caused by the earthquake in Yogyakarta."
Bambang Catur Nusantara, East Java director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), cautioned that Lapindo might see the move as justification for not paying further compensation to mudflow victims, which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered in 2007.
"Even with a presidential decree arranging a compensation mechanism for the villagers, things haven't gone smoothly," he said. "And now they have an even stronger reason to delay things further."
Meanwhile, East Java Police spokeswoman Pudji Astuti said officers were doing their best and had made use of all witnesses.
"We did ask lots of experts in this case. But police can't bring the case before the court because that's the prosecutors' job," she said. "The files have been returned to us by the prosecutors four times because they wanted physical evidence that could prove a connection between the drilling and the eruption."