East Kalimantan villagers delay blockade threat against Unocal

Residents of Giri Mukti village in East Kalimantan decided on Tuesday to delay plans to blockade the local operation of oil and gas firm Unocal Indonesia following an appeal from the local Penajam regency administration.

"The problem is now being handled by the government. We appreciate the efforts, that's we decided to delay the blockade threat," said Soetrisno as quoted by the local Kaltim Post daily.

The decision to delay the blockade was made although a five-hour talk between representative of the villagers and Unocal failed to reach any conclusion on whether the company would provide compensation as demanded by the residents.

But Soetrisno said that the blockade would be implemented if Unocal continued to reject the demand or if talks stalled again at the next meeting.

The villagers have been demanding for a compensation from Unocal following a gas leak incident in May of last year. The villagers have said that around 113 people have been affected, and demanded a compensation of Rp 100 million each. (Unocal has said only two people were hospitalized because of the incident and had received proper compensation).

On Monday, Kaltim Post reported that the villagers were ready to blockade the local access road of Unocal if Tuesday's talks failed to come up with a resolution.

Meanwhile, Unocal government relations manager Usman Slamet said that the company could not just give compensation without any proper legal basis to disburse the funds.

He said that the company wanted the villagers to first formulate the legal aspect.(Godang)