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Rights body investigates land dispute in Riau
The National Commission for Human Rights is investigating whether rights abuses took place in the prolonged land dispute between the Sakai tribe and a forestry company in the Riau regencies of Bengkalis and Siak
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The National Commission for Human Rights is investigating whether rights abuses took place in the prolonged land dispute between the Sakai tribe and a forestry company in the Riau regencies of Bengkalis and Siak.
An investigative team set up by the commission visited thousands of hectares of land in the Tasik Serai, Teluk Bongkal and Beringin villages in Bengkalis, and Gajah village in Siak.
Johny Simanjuntak, who led the fact-finding team, said they needed more time to collect data from the conflicting sides before the commission could decide if human rights abuses had taken place during the dispute.
He implied the investigation would be completed in June and if the team found human rights violations, the perpetrators would be brought to the human rights court.
The investigation is being conducted in response to complaints by Sakai farmers about the alleged forced appropriation by PT Arara Abadi of communal land belonging to the Sakai tribe in the regency.
Rinaldi, chairman of the Sakai Farmers Union (STR), accused Arara of robbing the land without compensation.
He said the forestry company had seized the land using the Soeharto-era Ministerial Decree No. 743/1996, which gave the company a industrial forest concession in the two regencies.
Rinaldi claimed the company had deployed hoodlums who used violence and intimidation to force villagers to leave the disputed land, "and villagers have been required to obtain permission before entering the forest areas".
Security posts in the industrial forests have functioned as military posts, treating landowners as outsiders, Rinaldi said.
"Many villagers could not endure the violence and intimidation and so moved to other villages. We hope the human rights body will maintain its neutrality in making its conclusion to the regencies," he said.
The forest concession was issued during the former president Soeharto's authoritarian regime, which did not recognize communal lands. During the New Order era, the government issued similar concessions in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua.
A spokesman for the provincial government, Khalil Dja'far, said the case should have been closed since the tribe and the company had already reached a peaceful solution.
A spokesman for Arara, Nurul Huda, said he hoped the fact-finding mission would let the public know which side had used violence and intimidation.
Nurul claimed his company had suffered material and non-material losses, including the murders of several employees which were all reported to the local police.
The commission's team had previously checked the land's status with the provincial government, the land agency and the forestry office in Bengkalis.
Law No. 41/1999 on forestry allows the government to give a forest concession to private companies to develop industrial forests in order to maintain forests' sustainability, but it also recognizes tribal ownership of communal land.
Many forest concession holders in the province have burned their land to make palm oil plantations, threatening the habitat of protected species such as Sumatran tigers, elephants and rhinos in the province.
