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Thousands of Sidoarjo mudflow victims took to the streets in East Java on Wednesday to demand Lapindo Brantas pay the agreed compensation of Rp 15 million ($1,455) per month.

The rally started in Porong subdistrict, where the mudflow erupted, before a motorcade of protesters headed off to the Sidoarjo Mud Mitigation Agency (BPLS) in Surabaya, where representatives met with agency head Soenarso.

Mud began gushing out of the ground near a PT Lapindo Brantas gas exploration well on May 29, 2006, inundating hundreds of hectares of residential, industrial and agricultural areas.

The victims complained on Wednesday that PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya, a subsidiary established by Lapindo Brantas to pay damages to the victims, had unilaterally stopped paying the installments in May.

“Starting in May, MLJ has stopped paying people who cannot produce their house deeds,” said Koes Sulaksono, coordinator of Team 16, which represents sixteen neighborhoods in the Tanggulangnin Anggun Sejahtera area of Porong.

Lapindo has asked victims to prove house ownership by showing the deeds, but according to Koes, deeds were held by the banks that provided the loans to buy those houses now buried under the mudflow, which most residents were still paying off.

According to the sales and purchase agreement signed by the residents and Lapindo, the latter was to be responsible for paying the remaining housing loans. “So when the compensation payment is stopped, we don’t know how we’re going to pay our housing loan,” Koes said.

From BPLS, protesters marched to the local Bank Indonesia branch on Jalan Pahlawan, where they met with BPLS officials, Bank Indonesia staff and Andi Darussalam, vice president of Minarak Lapindo Jaya.

Lapindo has reneged on their agreement on more than one occasion. The 2007 Presidential Decree No. 14 stipulates that 20 percent of the compensation be paid in advance, with the balance to be paid in installments. The payment process was, however, far from regular.

After a series of rallies in Jakarta in May 2008, an agreement was reached with the victims whereby Lapindo agreed to pay 90 percent of the damages in Rp 30 million monthly installments. But Lapindo failed yet again to honor its agreement.

In February 2009, the company claimed it could not pay the agreed installments, citing the global economic crisis.

Victims eventually engaged in further negotiations with the Bakrie group, facilitated by ministers in the BPLS and the National Police chief. At the meeting, Nirwan Bakrie gave a verbal guarantee for payments of Rp 15 million a month. Bakrie group also promised they would increase the sum of the monthly installment once financial conditions improved.