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2018 May 16 - 22 TOP3 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP lawmakers talk with Indonesians opposing coal-fired power plant project

Japanese Communist Party lawmakers Iwabuchi Tomo and Takeda Ryosuke on May 18 in the Diet building met with Indonesians fighting to block the construction of a new unit at the Cirebon coal-fired thermal power plant in their country.

The construction project at the Cirebon power plant in West Java, Indonesia, received a loan from the Japanese government-funded Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The power plant is cited for causing pollution in the sea and the air and many local people opposing the plant are being subjected to human rights violations. A group of local residents are fighting in court to stop the controversial project.

At the meeting with the JCP parliamentarians, the Indonesian activists said that the new unit project should be halted and that the JBIC should divest from the project.

One of the activists, who is a lawyer and represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to stop the construction project, explained that those who joined the court battle are encountering surveillance and threats. Another activist who is a member of the environment group Indonesian Forum of Environment said that the electricity supply in their country is more than sufficient.

Iwabuchi said that the JCP cannot overlook the JBIC’s involvement in a shameful project abroad and that the party will lend a willing hand to the Indonesians’ efforts to push the government-funded bank to break away from the project.

Past related article:
> Indonesian group asks JCP for cooperation in efforts to oppose Japan-funded thermal power generation [December 6 & 8, 2017]