Toba group opposes Indorayon reopening
Toba group opposes Indorayon reopening
JAKARTA (JP): The Lake Toba Heritage Foundation denounced the
government on Saturday for allowing PT Inti Indorayon Utama (IIU)
to resume its pulp making operation in North Sumatra.
The foundation, grouping prominent public figures from the
Lake Toba area, warned of chaos and security disruption in the
area unless the government reversed its decision.
"The resumption of IIU's operation will clearly lead to chaos
in the Toba Samosir area in particular, and in North Sumatra in
general," the foundation said in a statement.
The chaos will certainly bring countless damages that would be
counterproductive to current government efforts in wooing foreign
investors to Indonesia, it said.
The government ruled on Wednesday of letting publicly listed
IIU resume its pulp making operation but not its rayon production
line, which it deemed as the most harmful of the two to the
environment.
IIU, which is 86 percent owned by foreign investors through
American depository receipts, was forced by the government to
close down its entire operation near the Lake Toba area in 1998
following riots between local people and company workers.
The local people claimed that IIU's operation was destroying
the environment, a theme echoed by the foundation on Saturday.
In the two years since IIU ceased its operation, the "stinking
odors have disappeared, as have the polluting poisonous gasses;
gone also are the heavy trucks which once ruled and destroyed the
roads and bridges; gone also is the systematic destruction of the
forests by IIU", it said.
IIU has insisted that its operations were in compliance with
environmental regulations. It has offered to submit its
operations for an independent audit.
The foundation refuted the government's announcement that the
ruling was a "win-win solution for every one concerned".
The pulp operation would still mean felling trees and
destroying forests; logging trucks would continue to destroy
hundreds of kilometers of roads and the operation would emit
poisonous gasses, it said.
"The income and foreign exchange earnings resulting from the
operation will not be comparable to the destruction of the
ecosystem, forest, roads and bridges it causes.
"The number of jobs created for around 2,000 people pales in
comparison to the approximately 50,000 people it displaces in
agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries," the statement said.
The foundation "strongly urged the government to revoke its
decision to allow IIU to resume operating".
It also proposed the establishment of an independent committee
to investigate, validate and verify every internal and external
transaction, payment and loan made by and to IIU and its
subsidiaries.