Villagers meet with councilors over police crackdown at Unocal
Tuesday, October 10 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
About 300 villagers of Marangkayu, Rapak Lama, Terusan, in Kutai district, East Kalimantan visited on Monday the provincial council to voice protests against the crackdown launched by the policy on their blockage of the facilities owned by Unocal Indonesia Company, a subsidiary of American oil and gas firm Unocal Corp.
The villagers, who came in four trucks, demanded the council to help release five villagers from police custody, form a special committee to settle the dispute between the villagers and the company, follow up the alleged human rights abuses conducted by the police during the crackdown, Kaltim Post reported.
The villagers also demanded Unocal temporarily stop operations until after the dispute with the villagers is settled.
Buherah, director of the Institute for Environmental Awareness Society (LMPLH) in Marangkayu, who acted as spokesman for the villagers, threatened to burn down the facilities owned by the company, if the council did not meet their demands.
"If the council does not deliver on its promise, we shall handle the case on our own way by burning down Unocal," Buherah said.
The local police fielded on Sunday its Brimob elite force to end the two-weeks long blockage by the villagers of the canal used by Unocal to supply logistics to its offshore rigs in the areas.
The villagers established the blockade in a bid to pressure Unocal to pay compensation for their land, which they claimed to have been polluted by Unocal's waste - a claim which Unocal repeatedly denied.
Activists earlier said the police opened fire on the villagers during clash with them. They said 20 villagers sustained gunshot wounds and another two villagers went missing after the incident.
But, East Kalimantan police spokesman Supt. Faah Sumarno denied the allegation, saying only one villager was injured by rubber bullet during the incident. The person could return home after receiving medical treatment at Unocal's clinic in Marangkayu.
"He did not even need to stay overnight at the clinic," Faah said in a press conference.
Faah also denied the allegation that there were two villagers missing after the incident.
The police had confiscated 14 machetes, three knifes, one axe, four gasoline bombs, one spear and several baskets of stones from the villagers, Faah said.
Unocal's external affairs superintendent Samsulityo, who was present at the press conference, explained that the dispute between the company and the villagers dated back to 1997 when the villagers was faced with a harvest failure due to long draught.
The villagers accused Unocal of polluting their farmland, but an independent team refuted the accusation.
In the beginning, the villagers demanded compensation for a total 125hectares of land owned by 35 villagers but now the size of land they claimed to have been polluted have increased to 415 hectares, he said.
Initially, the villagers asked for one cow in compensation but today their demand has risen to 60 cows.
"The total compensation they demand is now worth about Rp 2 billion (US$1=Rp 8,820)," Samsulistyo said.
He said the blockage had disrupted the company's operation, forcing the company to use choppers to carry its logistical supplies.
He also Unocal is building a 16-kilometer road, health clinics, clean water facilities and providing scholarship to help the locals.
The company has also offered to distribute a Rp 1 billion aid to support the villagers' fishing and farming activities through a committee comprising the governmental officials and community leaders but the protesters led by Buherah turned down the offer, demanding the company directly deliver the money to them. (*)