T

em>This is the second of two reports on a deadly conflict between farmers and plantation companies allegedly backed by the police in the Mesuji area located on the border of Lampung and South Sumatra provinces. The Jakarta Post’s Hasyim Widhiarto recently traveled to the area to investigate the case. Here are the stories:

Businesspeople and environmentalists have repeatedly warned of escalating land disputes between plantation and mining companies and villagers in regions.

Business watchdog Sawit Watch recently recorded 664 unresolved land disputes involving palm oil companies up to this year. This year alone, it found that the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police were involved in 11 disputes.

However, local administrations seem to have done little in helping to resolve the disputes, which have resulted in several deadly evictions by the authorities.

Unresolved land disputes in the Mesuji area, which have claimed nine lives since 2010, have highlighted the minor role local administrations have played to settle the problems.

Documents obtained by the Post last week reveal that the administration and law enforcement agencies of Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) regency in South Sumatra had failed to anticipate the emergence of potential clashes between Mesuji district villagers and plantation company PT Sumber Wangi Alam (SWA).

This is despite the administration receiving an early warning of escalating tension between the two parties following a series of failed negotiations.

The first document, issued by the Mesuji district office in April, contained a summary of 10 separate meetings, attended by local officials, SWA representatives and Sungai Sodong village community leaders, to help settle the long-standing land dispute between SWA and the villagers.

According to the document, the dispute centered around the status of a land management cooperation between the company and villagers whose land was located along the border of the company’s plantation area.

The villagers, led by prominent local figure Syafei Hasan, also known as Haji Jalang, claimed they had submitted a total of 534 land certificates to SWA in the late 1990s in exchange for compensation and the right to manage 1,068 hectares of land within the company’s oil palm plantation area under a smallholder scheme.

However, as of today, the company has allocated less than 300 hectares of land for the villagers, they said.

SWA, however, has refused to acknowledge the arrangement, saying it was made by the residents with the previous owner of the plantation area before SWA took it over in 2004.

The company also argued that the former management of the plantation had canceled the arrangement with the approval of the residents due to administrative matters.

Most of the 10 negotiation talks, according to the document, yielded no results, mostly due to the absence of representatives from SWA and villagers, and both parties refused to make any compromises.

With the talks producing very little progress, tension was rapidly escalating.

In a meeting mediated by the OKI legislative council on Dec. 6, 2010, Sungai Sodong villagers asked for permission to harvest (oil palm fruit) on the disputed land, but neither the council nor the company replied, according to the document.

The document also had an attached copy of a letter sent on Feb. 1, 2011 by SWA director Muhammad Akib, former president director of publicly listed plantation company PT London Sumatra Indonesia, to OKI Regent Ishak Mekki, requesting that the latter help SWA evict Sungai Sodong villagers who “had been illegally harvesting and looting” oil palm fruit from the company’s 1,200-hectare plantation.

The local administration and the Mesuji Police sent a joint team to visit Sungai Sodong village twice a week to persuade the locals to patiently wait for a settlement to their dispute with SWA.

However, no progress was seen, and a deadly brawl involving villagers and SWA workers broke out on April 21, leaving seven dead — two villagers and five workers.

According to a classified police report issued after the incident and signed by then Mesuji Police chief Adj. Comr. Arkamil, the deadly brawl not only involved Sungai Sodong villagers but also those from nearby Pagar Dewa and Sungai Tepuk.

The conflict escalated beyond the initial estimate of the authorities.

“At around 2 p.m., Sungai Sodong villagers, back up by neighboring villagers, stormed the SWA campsite in four trucks. Carrying sharp weapons, they found four SWA workers, killed them and beheaded two of them,” the document says.

A couple of weeks after the incident, police chief Arkamil was replaced by Adj. Comr. Dwi Handoko.

The OKI regent’s assistant for administration, Kashmir Abdul Kirom, who was among several officials supervising the negotiations between SWA and Sungai Sodong villagers, denied the allegation that the authorities had done little to prevent the incident.

He said the administration had ordered authorities in Mesuji to “closely monitor and handle the situation in Sungai Sodong village” prior to the April incident.

Conditions some 80 kilometers south of the area in Register 45, consisting of Tugu Roda and Pelita Jaya hamlets, in Mesuji regency, Lampung, may also underline a failure by authorities to act in resolving a land dispute.

The problem started when the Forestry Minister issued a decree in 1997 granting PT Silva Inhutani Lampung the right to manage 43,100 hectares of land in the area under the industrial forest concession (HTI) scheme.

With the concession, the company has developed, as of today, 22,000 hectares of the total allocated
land, while the remainder had been left idle.

The area’s indigenous Megou Pak tribe then took over part of the idle land and claimed it as theirs. The tribe illegally sold the land to outsiders, who thought the land’s status was legally clear.

Thousands of illegal farmers have occupied 12,000 hectares of the company’s land over the past few years, making it hard for the company to maintain its plants as well as expand its planting areas.

Overwhelmed by the situation, Silva requested support from Lampung Governor Sjachroedin ZP, who established a joint team last year, supported by officers from the Lampung Police and Public Order Office, to implement an organized plan to evict the illegal farmers from the company’s land.

Instead of using the persuasive approach, the authorities launched a raid by a joint team on Nov. 6 last year. A farmer who had bought land from the tribe, identified as Made Asta from Pelita Jaya hamlet, was killed after he was allegedly shot by a Lampung Police officer.

Silva’s estate manager, Ahmad Safari, said his company had contributed money to finance the field operations of the joint team, but said it was only for food and accommodation.

“With fewer than 100 private internal security guards, it was impossible for us to handle the thousands of illegal farmers on company land without support from the local authorities,” he said.