A

protest turned into a riot in Batam, Riau Islands, as residents of Tanjung Uma village clashed with police officers on Wednesday at the Batam Free Trade Zone Management Agency (BP FTZ) office.

The protesters called on the agency to annul the allocation of land to PT Cahaya Dinamika Harun Abadi (CDHA) and officially recognize the old village of Tanjung Uma, which spans 108 hectares.

To prevent the riot from escalating, a number of schools located near the area were closed. Police deployed hundreds of Mobile Brigade (Brimob) personnel to quash the clash between ethnic groups over a land dispute.

The villagers marched from Tanjung Uma to the BP FTZ office on 35 trucks and hundreds of motorcycles. They planned to demand the BP FTZ immediately recognize Tanjung Uma and 33 other historic villages.

Tanjung Uma residents are also urging the BP FTZ to recognize 33 other historic villages through a petition that has been endorsed by residents of the historic villages.

Villager representatives were invited to the BP FTZ meeting room where Riau Islands Governor Muhammad Sani and BP FTZ head and Batam, Bintan and Karimun (BKK) FTZ Council chairman Mustofa Wijaya were ready to discuss the issue.

The closed door meeting, however, did not result in a solution to the issue, thus triggering anger among the protesters. After the Governor told them that their petition would be followed-up on by a team and that the process would take time, the protesters pelted stones at the BP FTZ office and the riot ensued. The riot police then fired tear gas at them.

Tanjung Uma is inhabited by around 25,000 people and is made up of eight community units. It is located near a number of business districts. A riot previously broke out between residents and members of the Jogoboyo mass organization stemming from a protest by Tanjung Uma residents, who urged the BP FTZ to cancel the allocation 108 hectares of land to PT CDHA that had been declared a historic village.

Tanjung Uma community coordinator Raja Harum said their demands must be fulfilled and that their struggle should not be regarded as conflict between ethnic groups.

'€œWe don'€™t hate a particular tribe. We are just demanding that our ancestral land no longer be given to investors,'€ said Harum.

Meanwhile, in Riau, Riau secretary assistant Abdul Latif said that state-owned plantation firm PTPN V, which currently manages a 2,800-hectare plot of land in Senama Nenek village, Kampar regency, had yet to obtain the right-to-cultivate land (HGU) certificates. '€œThe National Land Agency has declared that the 2,800-hectare plot of land was not included in the PTPN V'€™s HGU,'€ said Abdul.

PTPN V spokesman Friando Panjaitan admitted that the company had yet to obtain the HGU certificates. '€œBasically, the [2,800-hectare] land is only a small portion of the 132,000 hectares owned by the company. This is based on the decrees issued by the Agriculture Ministry in 1979, Riau governor in 1983 and the Forestry Ministry in 1996 respectively,'€ said Friando.

The land dispute between PTPN V and residents of Senama Nenek Village has been going on for 20 years.