16 held over plan to reopen pulp plant<\/p>\n
JAKARTA: Sixteen protesters are under arrest and around 500
\nhave fled a town in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra amid
\ncontroversial plans to reopen a polluting pulp plant, police and
\na human rights lawyer said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Police arrested 21 people and are still holding 16 after a
\nprotest on Thursday against the reopening of the plant, which was
\nclosed in 1999 following years of often violent protests that it
\nwas damaging the environment.<\/p>\n
"There are still 16 people detained and two others have
\nalready been released," a duty officer of the North Tapanuli
\ndistrict police force in Tarutung, North Sumatra, said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The policeman, who identified himself only as Barus, said the
\nmen were arrested following a protest in front of the Porsea sub-
\ndistrict administration on Thursday which lead to the office
\nbeing damaged.<\/p>\n
He declined to give more details.<\/p>\n
Lawyer and human rights activist Johnson Panjaitan said
\nhundreds of people had fled Porsea for the district town of
\nTarutung because the police, backed by the elite Brimob unit and
\nsoldiers, were terrorizing locals who oppose the reopening.<\/p>\n
"What is taking place in Porsea smacks of the New Order
\n(former president Suharto's rule) with state terrorism returning
\nto the stage," Panjaitan, of the Jakarta-based Indonesian
\nAssociation for Legal Aid and Human Rights, told AFP.<\/p>\n
The protest on Thursday followed news that the government
\nwanted to reopen PT Inti Indorayon (IIU), closed down in 1999
\nfollowing increasingly violent protests, under a new name, PT
\nToba Lestari Indah.<\/p>\n
IIU was closed down after years of protest and violence, often
\ndeadly, with the local population accusing the plant of damaging
\nthe environment. --AFP<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/16-held-over-plan-to-reopen-pulp-plant-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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