?Victims? of power project development demand compensation

Some 43 people from Aranio district, Banjar regency in South Kalimantan, came to the provincial governor office on Monday to ask for the support of the administration to demand compensation from the central government in Jakarta over the lost of land during the development of a power plant in 1970.

The local Banjarmasin Post daily said that the villagers, who claimed to represent nearly 3,000 people, failed to meet the governor who was on an overseas trip to Australia to lure mining investors into the province.

The villagers said that the development of the Riam Kanan hydropower power plant in the Aranio district in the 1970s had drowned some 108 million square meter of villagers land. No compensation was given to the villagers, who now demand some Rp 126 billion in compensation from Jakarta.

The villagers said that their struggle to obtain compensation had been suppressed in the past during the authoritarian rule of former president Soeharto.

The villagers said that the local Banjar administration and legislative council had now supported their fight to obtain proper compensation.

Some 11 representatives of the villagers plan to go to Jakarta once they obtain support from the South Kalimantan governor.(*)