Over 5,000 protest Indorayon's reopening

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Over 5,000 people from the Lake Toba area gathered in the North Sumatra town of Porsea on Sunday to express opposition to the central government's decision to allow PT Indorayon Pulp and Paper to resume operations.

Present at the protest was House of Representatives (DPR) legislator Tunggul Sirait, chairman of the Batak Toba Forum (Parbato) Ompu Monang Napitupulu, and Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) director Effendi Panjaitan as well as non- governmental organization (NGO) activists.

According to House Commission VIII member Sirait, his commission and the government had reached an agreement not to allow Indorayon, blamed for environmental destruction in the area, to resume operations unless it was relocated outside Porsea.

"I'm disappointed with the government's decision not to abide by the agreement," Sirait told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

He did not say when they had reached the agreement, but a Cabinet meeting had approved Indorayon's reopening in May.

Indorayon is to resume operations under a different name -- PT Toba Pulp Lestari.

Set up in 1986 with startup capital of US$600 million, Indorayon had been held responsible for the declining water level of Lake Toba and illegal logging in North Sumatra.

Local people also accused the company of dumping poisonous waste water directly into Asahan River, polluting the air and causing lung disease among local people.

Sirait vowed to mobilize DPR members to question the government's decision to allow Indorayon to operate under a different name.

"I will continue fighting not only in the House but also with the people of Porsea to demand that Indorayon's license to operate be revoked or at least moved out of Porsea," he said.

North Sumatra's Walhi chairman, Effendi Panjaitan, questioned the government's decision to allow Indorayon to reopen its operation without consulting Porsea's inhabitants.

"Ideally, the local people should have given approval before the government allows Indorayon to resume operations. Local people still oppose the reopening of the company," Panjaitan said.

Bowing to public pressure to close down the plant, former president Abdurrahman Wahid ordered the closure of the company in 2000 for environmental reasons.

Dozens of people were killed in a series of demonstrations against the company owned by businessman Sukamto Tanoto of the Radja Garuda Mas Group.

Listed both on the Jakarta and New York stock exchange, Indorayon exports pulp and paper products to a number of European countries, Japan and the United States.