Cashing in at Cepu
THE drilling project at the Cepu Block promises to be a cash bonanza. Everybody is racing to make a fortune from the giant oil/gasfield on the borders of Central and East Java. Land brokers and speculators are also getting in on the game and trickery is being employed to rake in profits from the release of land, the prices of which have been jacked up to exorbitant levels. Tempo's investigations have been able to uncover a "syndicate" of government officials and businesspeople who have forged a tight relationship in Banyu Urip, one of the Cepu fields.
January 15, 2008
SUWITO Hariyanto's cellphone rang one morning in mid-2006. A person claiming to be an employee of the herbal medicine company PT Sido Muncul had a request for the 36-year-old man from Surabaya. "My boss wants to meet you," he said. Being a former employee of the company, Suwito knew of course whom they meant by "my boss." He left his house in Bojonegoro immediately.
Upon arriving at the Sido Muncul branch office in the East Java capital, he was greeted
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