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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">JP/Oyos Saroso: Living miserably: Dozens of Mesuji villagers in Lampung are forced to live like refugees in makeshift tents, without access to electricity and drinking water, near the Hutan Register 45 area. They fled their village in September after local authorities and vigilantes destroyed their homes.Residents of Mesuji district, in Ogan Komering Ilir, South Sumatra, have difficulty moving forward without recalling the brutal killing of seven people, three of whom were beheaded, in April in a land dispute between local people and a plantation company.

The plantation camp of PT Sumber Wangi Alam (SWA), where the crimes reportedly happened, was found to be deserted on Tuesday after all of the company’s workers had resigned for security reasons and severe psychological trauma.

Dozens of houses for the workers and their families were left in ruins as new workers preferred to return to their homes in nearby villages located outside the plantation due to security concerns.

“They are all traumatized by the incidents, especially after witnessing the dead bodies of their colleagues who were brutally killed by the locals,” said SWA worker Supriyono, who is in charge of operations at the company.

He said after the closure in April, the company finally reopened in October having managed to recruit new workers.

Run 24 hours-a-day by 25 workers in two working shifts, SWA’s palm oil factory can process up to 10 tons of oil palm fruit per hour. The plant is located only 100 meters from the crime scene.

The SWA plantation is at the heart of alleged human rights violations reported by a group of local residents supported by former
Army officer Maj. Gen. (ret.) Saurip Kadi, who showed legislators alleged video footage of the beheadings last week.

Apart from the SWA incident, Saurip also reported two other incidents of land disputes that ended in brutal killings in two areas in Mesuji regency in Lampung — located more than 80 kilometers south of Ogan Komering Ilir.

In the SWA incident, Saurip claimed gross negligence by local law enforcers had led to a failure to prevent the killings.

The land dispute between SWA and local residents, which has spanned more than a decade, came to a head in April’s incident when a grandson of Sungai Sodong village leader Syafei Hasan was allegedly beheaded by the company’s security personnel for allegedly trying to take over the company’s harvest. Another resident was also killed in the clash.

Sungai Sodong is the nearest village to the plantation.

A couple of hours later, around 200 villagers retaliated to the killing by storming the plantation and killing five SWA workers.

Trials of the suspects in the incidents are currently ongoing.

Sungai Sodong villagers have mostly refused to talk to outsiders about the trials or to discuss the incidents, saying they had difficulties in moving forward as the situation remained tense.

“The incidents took place months ago. There’s no need to talk about it since we’re trying to live normally,” said Bangsawan, 36, an indigenous resident and father of four.

Located some 40 kilometers from the province’s main road, Sungai Sodong is bordered by the SWA plantation and the Mesuji River. To reach the area, visitors must drive along a rugged road through the heart of the company’s plantation.

According to official data, the village is now inhabited by 600 families, with 400 families of indigenous people and the remaining 200, long-term migrants from Java.