Village leaders demand money from Caltex

Four prominent figures at the Sedinginan village of the Tanah Putih district in Rokanhilir regency, Riau has demanded PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) to pay them certain amount of money in return to their help to settle a dispute with local residents, Riau Pos reported on Friday.

The four villagers, accompanied by their lawyer Iwan Kurnian, said that they had became main witnesses in the legal fights between the company and Abdulattilah, also a resident in the village, over the ownership of the 447 hectare of land used by Caltex for its oil storage.

They said that Caltex had promised to pay them for their readiness to become witnesses but the payment had never been made.

Abdulttilah claimed that the land used for the company's oil storage was owned by his family and demanded the company to pay Rp 47 billion for the land compensation. Caltex then won the legal fight.

The four villagers acknowledged that they had received Rp 5 million each from Caltex but they said that the money was, as stated in receipts, not for their assistance of becoming witnesses but for the survey costs.

"We want Caltex to give us some more. Our demand is not such a big?if the payment is enough to cover the cost for our haj pilgrimage with our wives, I think it is OK," one of the four men said. (*)