"Flores villagers accuse police of beating them during protest against German bank funded geothermal project"

Villagers in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province accuse police of committing violence when they protest against land measurements for a Germany bank-funded geothermal project on their customary land.

Servasius Masyudi Onggal, a villager from Poco Leok, Manggarai Regency on Flores island said dozens of villagers were victims of beatings when they held protests for two days on June 20-21.

“While the others had minor injuries, three of them were seriously injured. Two people are currently being treated at the local clinic, while a man who was seriously injured will undergo follow-up examinations at the hospital,” he told Floresa on June 22.

Onggal sent a number of videos showing villagers, including women screaming hysterically trying to stop a team from the state-owned PT State Electricity Company [PT PLN], which was working on the project, under heavy police and military guard.

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Onggal said residents have been on guard at the location since June 9, when PT PLN first started setting stakes on residents’ lands.

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The geothermal project, funded by Germany’s bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) is an expansion of the Ulumbu power plant, about three kilometers to the west of Poco Leok, with a target of increasing it to 40 megawatts from the 10 currently in operation.

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