Environment group Greenpeace dumped black-greyish mud at Indonesia's welfare ministry on Wednesday in protest over the government's handling of a giant mudflow that has displaced thousands and ruined livelihoods.
JAKARTA — Environment group Greenpeace dumped black-greyish mud at Indonesia's welfare ministry on Wednesday in protest over the government's handling of a giant mudflow that has displaced thousands and ruined livelihoods.
A business group owned by the family of Social Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie holds a controlling stake in Lapindo Brantas, the company blamed for the mudflow, which has been pouring out of an exploratory oil well in East Java province since May.
The firm has denied the mud is directly linked to the drilling operation.
The mud has swamped four villages in Sidoarjo regency over an area larger than Monaco, displacing more than 10,000 people. Dykes have been hastily built to try to channel the mud to keep it from inundating more homes and land but with mixed success. Earlier this month, Lapindo diverted the flow into a local river, killing fish and triggering protests from green groups.
Police looked on as Greenpeace activists poured buckets of volcanic mud taken from the site of the disaster. The group dumped about 700kg (1,540 lb) of mud at the gate of the welfare ministry in the capital, Jakarta.
"It's a symbolic move. It's utterly shameless for the minister to distance himself from the disaster when his corporate group owns the controlling shares of this operation," Greenpeace Southeast Asia director Emmy Hafild told reporters.
Hafild said the government had not done all it could to mitigate the disaster and called for steel barriers to be built to contain the mud.
Lapindo is controlled by listed firm PT Energi Mega Persada, which is in turn controlled by the Bakrie group. Another Bakrie-controlled firm, miner PT Bumi Resources Tbk, has plans to buy out PT Energi in an all-share deal.
"NO LONGER LIVEABLE"
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday ordered the resettlement of residents within 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of the mud-hit area, Public Works Minister Joko Kirmanto said.
"The area has been declared a disaster-prone zone and therefore it is no longer liveable," he told reporters, adding that the mud was not harmful to human health.
Basuki Hadimuljo, who heads a team tasked with dealing with the disaster, said Lapindo had allocated 1.7 trillion rupiah ($162 million) to rent houses for displaced people, build dykes and provide equipment for channelling the mud into a nearby river and then out to sea.
Around 50,000 cubic metres (1.75 million cubic feet) of mud pour out of the well every day and a group of international scientists said this week the mudflow might be a natural phenomenon that could be impossible to stop.
That has added to concerns it could pollute the ocean, a source of income for millions living on Java's eastern coast.
Hafild said the fate of those displaced should override environmental concerns in the short term.
"We don't have a solution. We are an environmental group but right now the focus should be to evacuate people who live in the immediate vicinity of the mudflow," she said.
Several experts have said the mudflow could have been triggered by a crack down about 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) inside the Banjar Panji well.
Jakarta officials want to remove the water from the mud, treat it and then allow it to flow into the sea through a 20-km (12 mile) pipeline, a plan that could take months to be approved. ($1 = 9,215 rupiah) (Additional reporting by Muklis Ali)
Source: Reuters
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