Jakarta Globe, Willy Masaharu, January 21, 2013
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South
Lampung, Lampung. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan says that local people must
have the right to benefit from forests in their areas, as civil society groups
continue to accuse the government of neglecting the rights of indigenous
peoples to their homeland.
On his
visit to a village in Lampung, Zulkifli said the government would prioritize
local people in managing resources.
“The
government will make people prosperous. Of course, they can utilize the forest
as long as it’s in a wise way,” he said.
Activists
and scholars have criticized the government for sacrificing indigenous people
for the interests of big plantation companies when formulating regulations on
natural resource management, with the sectors becoming increasingly synonymous
with cases of land grabs, environmental damage and violent clashes.
They urged
the government to consider people’s rights in formulating and executing
policies.
Mohamad
Choirul Anam, deputy executive director of the Human Rights Working Group, said
the government should be held accountable for the many cases of conflict linked
to land disputes, arguing it had failed to ensure people were fairly
compensated for their land or to anticipate overlapping claims before issuing
permits for plantations and mining concessions.
Zulkifli
said the villagers would be protected from violence and any illegal practices
of the companies and state agencies as long as they did not violate the law.
He said
that each family could manage up to two hectares of forest, and no other
parties could claim the land.
“However,
the land can not be sold, and must only be utilized wisely,” Zulkifli added.
He said the
government had also provided soft loans for local people so that they could buy
seed and fertilizer.
The
Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) has recorded that at least 25 farmers were
shot and three killed last year across Indonesia as a result of land disputes
and agrarian conflicts.
Although
2011 was a more deadly year for agrarian conflicts, with 22 deaths linked to
land disputes, the total number of conflicts rose to 198 in 2012, the KPA said.
The group
highlighted cases over the past two years in South Sumatra and Lampung, where
bloody conflicts between farmers and large oil palm plantations persist.
Tensions first erupted in 2011, but a lack of government commitment to
addressing the problem’s root causes prompted the conflict to resurface again
last year, HRWG’s Choirul said.
In July
last year, police, who many believe were siding with plantation owners, opened
fire on a group of protesting farmers in Ogan Ilir district, South Sumatra. The
victims of the shooting had accused private plantation companies of encroaching
on their lands. A child was fatally shot by police during the protest.
The KPA
also claimed that 156 farmers were arbitrarily arrested for protesting against
land encroachment by big businesses, while none of the land dispute cases were
ever investigated. Agrarian conflicts have also resulted in 55 farmers
sustaining injuries from heavy-handed policing and alleged torture, the KPA
said.
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Alarmingly High Rate of Disputes Reported Between Oil Palm Firms, Locals
Conflict in Tarakan displaces 32,000 people
Energy, food and climate crises: are they driving an Indonesian ‘land grab’?
Indigenous peoples threatened by resource exploitation
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