After hours of tough negotiations, victims of the Lapindo mudflow disaster reached an agreement with the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency (BPLS) and the Bakrie family's PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya on Wednesday.
Under the latest agreement, each victim family would get the remaining 80 percent of compensation owed in Rp 30 million (US$2,500) monthly installments.
The meeting -- to resolve the issue of compensation payouts for the victims' assets that were damaged by the mudflow -- was held at the State Secretariat office on Wednesday and was attended by representatives of mudflow victims and BPLS, and Nirwan Bakrie, head of the Bakrie group of companies.
The victims represented were residents of four villages -- Renokenongo, Kedungbendo, Jatirejo and Siring -- which are included in a map of affected areas stipulated in a 2007 presidential regulation.
The victims have been in Jakarta since Monday, protesting the government's delays in fulfilling promised compensation payments.
After the meeting, Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said because of the current financial situation, the remaining installments could not be settled immediately and that the three
parties -- the BPLS, Lapindo and the victims -- had agreed on a scheme to pay the compensation in monthly installments of Rp 30 million per family.
"There should be no deadlock because the victims need this compensation now. That is why we have agreed on this scheme. Each family will get Rp 30 million per month until their credits are
settled," Djoko said at a press conference at the presidential office.
"We will begin disbursing the installments this month, on different days for each family, depending on when their lease is due for renewal," he said.
As well as the Rp 30 million, mudflow victims are also entitled to Rp 2.5 million cash which would allow them to extend the lease on their homes.
"We have settled disputes on the compensation payments through this negotiation process. And we have not violated the presidential regulation," Nirwan said.
Earlier in the day, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged the ministers, BPLS and Nirwan for the compensation payments to be settled immediately.
"I feel inconvenienced by this problem. If we can resolve Aceh, why can't we resolve this," the President said, referring to decades of conflicts in the country's westernmost province.
After the negotiations, the mudflow victim representatives met with Yudhoyono.
One of the representatives, Kus Sulaksono, said victims had accepted the agreement although they initially demanded each family receive Rp 75 million to enable them to buy their own homes, while Lapindo had initially only been willing to pay them in Rp 15 million installments.
"We agreed on this scheme, and after being convinced by the President that the current crisis has hampered the compensation payments. We understand," Kus said.
The mudflow, which has completely buried four villages and hundreds of hectares of farmland, was triggered by a hot mud volcano which started in an accident at one of the Bakrie company's mining sites on May 29, 2006.
An October meeting of world-renowned geologists concluded that the disaster was caused by Lapindo's oil and gas drilling, not an earthquake in Yogyakarta as the company had claimed previously.
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