Farmers' blockage of road access to Vico ends

Dozens of farmers from Seliki village, Muara Badak district in Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, ended on Thursday afternoon their two-day blockade of road access to oil and gas company PT Vico Indonesia following a promise from the company to hold a dialogue with the farmers on Friday.

The protesting farmers agreed after a Vico external relation officer, Surya, accompanied by a number of officials from Muara Badak administration, met with the farmers and negotiated over their demands of Rp 1 billion (US$ = Rp 11,400) compensation for their polluted farming lands.

"We have conveyed the farmers' demand to the Kutai administration, and we are awaiting a moment to talk together. We of course do not want to take any decision without the knowledge of the Kutai administration," Surya said.

Surya and the farmers then agreed that they would discuss it further at a meeting on Friday, to be hosted by the Kutai administration, in the administration's office in Tenggarong.

The protesters then dispersed peacefully at about 5 p.m. on Thursday.

The Wednesday-Tuesday blockage was not the first move the farmers had taken. They did the same blockage about a month ago. The farmers at that time agreed to open their blockage after the company promised to settle their demand, with the held of the Kutai administration.

But then Vico never met its promise, according to one of the protesters, Encek.

"They only fooled us so that we opened the blockage. The planned meeting and dialogue that would be facilitated by the Kutai administration had never been materialized. Therefore, today, we started the blockage again," Encek said on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, the farmers ended their blockage again with a promise from Vico to hold the dialogue on Friday. (*)