THE big houses on stilts stand neatly along the mangrove-lined shore at Kampung Tanah Merah Baru, bigger and better than in any kampung in the West Papua Regency of Bintuni. Made of iron wood and with tiled roofs and electricity, the houses are three times bigger.

Tanah Merah Baru is a new village to which residents of Tanah Merah were relocated when their land was acquired by British Petroleum (BP) as part of its Tangguh liquified natural gas (