Tokyo?s court to hold lawsuit over Kotopanjang dam: Report

Some 3,900 residents of Sumatra Island will join a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Friday under which another 3,900 of their neighbors have questioned the legitimacy of Japanese foreign aid, their lawyer said Tuesday. as reported by Kyodo News.

The plaintiffs argue that some 20,000 local residents were forcibly resettled to areas without proper living facilities and job opportunities when the hydroelectric Kotopanjang Dam, funded with Japan's official development assistance (ODA), was completed in 1996.

The initial group filed the first-ever lawsuit over the use of ODA last September to seek a total of some 19.3 billion yen in compensation, or 5 million yen each, from the Japanese government, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the state-run Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and Tokyo Electric Power Services Co.

The planned participation of the second group of residents will bring the total amount of compensation demand to some 39 billion yen, said Akihiko Oguchi, Tokyo lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

JICA is the foreign assistance body of the Japanese government while Tokyo Electric Power Services is an affiliate of Tokyo Electric Power Co.

The plaintiffs said the dam, located in the middle of the island on the border between Riau and West Sumatra provinces, has damaged not only their lives and culture but also the natural environment of the area, with elephants, tigers and other rare animals facing starvation.

Oguchi said the animals will also be included in the suit as part of the plaintiffs' group.

"We consider the group of an unspecified number of animals as one plaintiff seeking 5 million yen, which should be used to recover the damaged natural environment," he said.

The local residents have been supported by Japanese lawyers, scholars and citizen activists in filing the suit.

The supporters said Japanese ODA-funded development projects are increasingly seen as inefficient in improving the living conditions of residents of recipient countries, while only Japanese consulting firms and construction companies involved in them benefit.

"We expect the lawsuit to be an opportunity for Japanese to review the use of ODA as taxpayers," Oguchi said.

While declining to directly comment on the ongoing suit and the participation of other plaintiffs, a senior official of Japan's Foreign Ministry said, "We recognize some local residents' discontent over drinking water and job opportunities."

"We have provided indirect support to the Indonesian local government and the residents for satisfying their needs, and the talks are making progress," he said.

The Kotopanjang Dam was built at a cost of some 31 billion yen and paid for with a yen-denominated government loan. (*)