"Farmers fall short in legal challenge to Java cement plant", 20 Apr 2015

A grassroots movement to halt construction of a cement factory and mine in Indonesia's Rembang regency suffered a major setback...when a Central Java court rejected a lawsuit against a permit held by state-owned Semen Indonesia, the country's largest cement producer.  Judges cited local people's strident opposition to the project as proof that the environmental and social impact assessment, or Amdal, in question had been sufficiently publicized, and through the appropriate channels...The plaintiffs, meanwhile, maintained they knew nothing of the company's impact assessment until heavy machinery appeared at the factory and mining site in June 2014, after which the suit had been submitted...The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), an NGO who joined local people in filing the suit, said the ruling ignored its principal concern – the threat mining posed to the karst-dotted Kendeng highlands and water sources therein...The Rembang case has become one of Indonesia's most high-profile land disputes on the back of a sustained social media and mass action campaign...[A]n official from Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) pointed to Rembang as an example of how impact assessments are frequently manipulated by companies required to undertake them.