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Concerns raised over TNI’s role in Papua food estate
The government is planning to send more TNI personnel to Papua to help with its efforts to achieve national food self-sufficiency.
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President Prabowo Subianto (center) operates a rice harvester on Nov. 3, 2024, on land cultivated under the government’s food estate project during his visit to Telaga Sari village, Merauke, South Papua. (AFP/Handout/Indonesian Presidential Palace)
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uman rights groups have raised concerns about the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) presence in the government’s food estate project in Merauke, South Papua, and have called on the government to halt the militarization of civilian affairs and discontinue the large-scale food project across the island.
The 2.3-million hectare Merauke food estate, a national strategic project commenced under former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration, aims at helping the country achieve food self-sufficiency.
It was not the first attempt at a food estate in Papua. In 2010, then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched a similar project, clearing 1.2 million hectares of forest for agricultural use. The project, however, failed to reach its target of national food self-sufficiency.
Almost twice the size of the previous effort, Jokowi’s food estate program prioritizes clearing land for sugarcane plantations and rice fields while also pushing for land optimization.
The Merauke food estate is continuing under the administration of President Prabowo Subianto, and the TNI has become more involved in it and other projects in the food sector, said Laksmi Savitri of environmental group Pusaka Bentala Rakyat.
Laksmi, who conducted ethnographical research in Merauke from August to September of last year, said the increase in the TNI’s role in the project grew out of its collaboration with the Agriculture Ministry.
Read also: Prabowo orders Army to work on food security
