Part of a continuing series on the impact of the financial and economic crisis on the Asia Pacific.

Back in June 2006 Indonesian environment watchdog Walhi urged the government to shutdown and investigate PT Lapindo Brantas' gas prospecting operation in East Java after a botched drilling operation that caused hot toxic mud to flood surrounding land and to poison local villagers. By mid-2008 some 50,000 people had fled their homes. An international team of scientists who studied the phenomenon is convinced that the mudflow is an “unnatural disaster.” Lapindo, as the article mentions, was then part of the conglomerate owned by Indonesian billionaire and member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cabinet, Aburizal Bakrie. Sale of Lapindo in 2006 was widely viewed in Indonesia as an attempt by Bakrie to reduce his financial exposure.