Category: English

PARIS – A mud volcano that has displaced more than 13,000 Indonesian families will erupt for at least a quarter of century, emitting belches of flammable gas through a deepening lake of sludge, scientists reported on Thursday.

Underground pressure means the volcano “Lusi,” in Sidoarjo, East Java, is likely to gush grey mud until 2037, when volumes will become negligible, according to their computer model. But gas will continue to percolate through it for decades and possibly centuries to come. (more…)

SURABAYA–Residents of three villages in Jabon subdistrict in Sidoarjo, East Java, have refused to leave their homes as part of a government plan to use the area as a reservoir for mud from the Lapindo mud volcano.

Under an earlier agreement, residents of Pejarakan, Besuki, and Kedungcungkring villages were to leave after receiving 20 percent of the compensation promised to them by the government, with the rest to follow.

However, the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency (BPLS) said on Tuesday that the residents were refusing to honor the agreement, despite have already received more than the initial 20 percent. (more…)

Jakarta – It is becoming a disturbing regularity that every now and then when we look at our country’s economic situation, we face another potential scandal linked to business tycoon Aburizal Bakrie.

The latest one emerged recently after an assessment by the central bank (Bank IndonesiaI) into Bank Capital’s finances found that almost Rp 7 trillion (US$777 million) in time deposits owned by PT Bakrie and Brothers and subsidiaries have vanished. (The Jakarta Post, July 19).

This finding was first identified by the Indonesian Stock Exchange, when a whistle-blower reported irregularity in the first quarter financial statements of Bakrie and its subsidiaries. The statements reported that Bakrie companies had Rp 9.05 trillion (about US$1 billion) invested in time deposits at Bank Capital. (more…)

Jakarta – Zulfika Rochmah stood shyly in front of the crowd, trying to explain why school was so important to her.
“I want to be a doctor someday so I can make my friends well again. They have trouble breathing now since the mud,” said the skinny 10-year-old from Sidoarjo, East Java.

“A lot of my friends are too sick to come to school now, or have moved away. I feel so lonely sometimes,” said the pony-tailed girl wearing a faded red T-shirt and old baggy jeans, who studies at an Islamic elementary school in West Besuki. (more…)

Please see these numbers, Rp 33.2 trillion; Rp 27.4 trillion, and Rp 32.8 trillion. Well, unusually large, isn’t it? And those numbers are not the losses suffered by investors due to the fuss collapse of world stock markets recently. These numbers are estimated for economic losses caused by Lapindo mudflow disaster in Sidoarjo.

The mind-boggling figures above were published by Greenomics, the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and the State Audit Bureau (BPK) after studies into the economic impacts of the disaster.

In a similar tone, the economist Kresnayana Yahya has estimated that each day as much as Rp 300 million (AUD$36,000) fails to enter the economy due to ruptured infrastructure that has brought much of the transportation in the area to a standstill.

So how is it possible that a mudflow, which is lightly passed off by some officials as a passing, local annoyance to just the people of the Porong region and which has only inundated less than 2 percent of Sidoarjo District, could cause such enormous financial losses? (more…)

PARIS – Scientists Friday unveiled fresh evidence that gas drillers were to blame for unleashing a mud volcano in Indonesia’s East Java that claimed 14 lives and displaced tens of thousands of people. In a paper published by the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology, a group led by experts from Britain’s Durham University said the new clues bolstered suspicions the catastrophe was caused by human error.

The company being fingered for the disaster, drilling firm Lapindo Brantas, replied in the same journal that the “Lusi” mud volcano was unleashed by an earthquake at Yogyakarta, 280 kilometres (174 miles) away. Lusi’s mud has been devouring land and homes in Sidoarjo district since May 2006, imperilling as many as 100,000 people through subsidence and inflicting damage at 4.9 billion dollars, according to an estimate by an Australian expert.

Durham professor Richard Davies said drillers, looking for gas nearby, had made a series of mistakes. (more…)

BERKELEY — New data provide the strongest evidence to date that the world’s biggest mud volcano, which killed 13 people in 2006 and so far has displaced 30,000 people in East Java, Indonesia, was not caused by an earthquake, according to an international scientific team that includes researchers from Durham University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Drilling firm Lapindo Brantas has denied that a nearby gas exploration well was the trigger for the volcano, instead blaming an earthquake that occurred 280 kilometers (174 miles) away. The firm backed up its claims in an article, accepted this week for publication in the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology, by lead author Nurrochmat Sawolo, senior drilling adviser for Lapindo Brantas, and colleagues.

In response, a group of scientists from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Indonesia led by Richard Davies, director of the Durham Energy Institute, has written a discussion paper in which it refutes the main arguments made by Sawolo and documents new data that provides the strongest evidence to date of a link between the well and the volcano. That paper has been accepted for publication in the same journal. (more…)

The National Commission on Human Rights has deepened its investigation to find out whether gross human rights violations were committed against the thousands of people living in a 90-hectare area in Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java, by a company drilling for oil and gas there.

Legally, the commission has the authority to conduct legal investigations and collect evidence and then submit it to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), which will prosecute the case.

Commission chairman Ifdhal Kasim said they would investigate all key officials of the contractor, PT Lapindo Brantas, which is owned by Aburizal Bakrie, the coordinating public welfare minister at the time of the disaster on May 29, 2006. (more…)

JAKARTA: The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) will announce the results of its final investigation on possible gross violations of human rights against thousands of mudflow victims in a 90-hectare area of Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java.

The hot, thick mudflow, allegedly triggered by careless drilling activities carried out by an oil and gas exploration contractor, has forced locals to flee their homes and rice paddies.

The contractor, PT Lapindo Brantas, is owned by the former coordinating minister for people’s welfare, Abu Rizal Bakrie, who held the position when the disaster first occurred on May 29, 2006. (more…)

The National Commission on Human Rights has renewed its call for the government to compensate the thousands of people affected by the East Java mudflow disaster, which has claimed their land and livelihoods.

Commission chairman Ifdhal Kasim said Wednesday the government had yet to take con-crete actions to solve the problem. (more…)

Jakarta (ANTARA News) – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said on Wednesday the government has ignored its recommendations to restore the rights of Lapindo Brantas mudflow victims in Sidoarjo, East Java.

“Based on the results of our study we found a number of human rights violations in the incident,” Komnas HAM Chief Ifdhal Kasim said at a function to deliver the rights body`s year-end report. (more…)

People have their own ways of expressing what they feel. Fifty children displaced by the Lapindo mudflow disaster in Sidoarjo did so by writing letters to the moon in an event held in Batu city earlier this month.

Together with 50 other children from Wukir village, Torong Rejo subdistrict, Junrejo district, Batu City, and 10 street children from Malang municipality, they wrote letters on pieces of paper and attached them to threads hanging from a balloon made of paper.

Then they floated them into sky, symbolically sending all the letters to the moon. (more…)