•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Sidoarjo, East Java. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered an investigation into whether the Sidoarjo mudflow in East Java has affected people beyond the immediate area.

Yudhoyono, making his second visit to the devastated region since taking office in 2004, also called on Monday for the compensation process to be speeded up.

“I am asking all sides to coordinate and synergize to accelerate the compensation payment process,” Yudhoyono said during a flying visit to Jatirejo, on the rim of the sprawling mud lake near the center of the mudflow.

“I have instructed the public works minister, the East Java administration and a team from ITS [Surabaya Institute of Technology] to work together in studying the impact of the mud on areas beyond the directly affected areas, whether it affects their agriculture and life,” the president said.

Yudhoyono said the “good news” was that the mud was now flowing out of the ground at just less than 70,000 cubic feet a day, compared with 1.7 million cubic meters initially.

He said his visit was intended to ensure that his instructions regarding mudflow management programs were implemented effectively.

PT Lapindo Brantas, which has been blamed by some parties for the mudflow because of negligence during a gas-drilling operation in the area, is obliged to pay compensation to all those who lost property and can provide evidence of ownership.

The government is compensating those from three other villages affected by the spreading mud.

Andi Darussalam Tabussala, vice president of PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya, which handles compensation claims, said his company hoped to complete the settlements by 2012.

He said about 7,500 of the 13,237 claims had been settled.

Akhmad Dhuha, a spokesman for residents of Mindi village, said the president’s visit was disappointing.

“Unfortunately his visit did not improve conditions because residents were not given the chance to talk to him directly,” Dhuha said.

In Mindi village alone, nearly 5,000 people have been living in fear for four years because they are only 50 meters from the main dike containing the mud lake.

In March 2006, mud began spewing from a crack near a gas-drilling well operated by Lapindo, a company under the umbrella of the Bakrie group controlled by the family of the then coordinating minister for people’s welfare, Aburizal Bakrie.

The mudflow inundated hundreds of hectares, swallowing homes, fields and factories and leaving thousands homeless.

Yudhoyono also asked East Java Governor Sukarwo and the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency to work together on the agency’s proposal to turn the area into a mud volcano park that would allow volcanologists and geologists to study the phenomenon and also serve as a recreational area.

“Maybe this can be turned into some kind of geological tourism place, a fishing or agriculture source or something else,” Yudhoyono said.