Kedungombo villagers renew protest

SEMARANG: Some 1,000 villagers residing near the Kedungombo dam in the regencies of Boyolali, Sragen and Grobogan, staged a rally on Tuesday demanding that the government pay the remaining compensation for land lost to the dam project in 1985.

The villagers, mostly farmers, thronged the front yard of the Central Java Governor's office on Jl. Pahlawan, Semarang, claiming that the development of the dam had inflicted huge losses to them.

"We have lost our land, yet the compensation process has not been completed," one of the protesters said.

Since the project started in 1985, the government has been overwhelmed with protests from local landowners.

Many had rejected compensation and a government offer to relocate them to other villages, despite the fact that the filling of the dam had begun.

The situation grew worse and received international attention at the time when a protesting villager asked (the late) priest, Y.B. Mangunwijaya, to participate as an activist.

Efforts have been made by the government to calm the villagers by, among other things, providing certificates for plots of land in other villages as compensation.

The problem remains, however unresolved, and the farmers renewed their protest on Tuesday. They also demanded that the gubernatorial decrees issued in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987 on the establishment of the special committee to deal with the land acquisition process be revoked. "The decrees have been a disaster for Kedungombo landowners," the protesters' spokesman, Paris Rajanto, said.

None of the officials responded to the farmers' protest.

Kedungombo dam covers a total of 6,576 hectares of land through three villages. The project absorbed a total of almost US$181 million, of which $156 million was from World Bank loans. (har)