T

he Central Java provincial administration has been urged to find immediate and thorough settlements to land disputes to prevent more conflicts from boiling over.

The Legal Aid Institute (LBH) Semarang, the Association for Community and Ecology Based Law Reform (Huma) and the Participative Mapping Working Network (JKPP) announced on Wednesday that they had jointly mapped agrarian conflicts in the province as of the last quarter of 2011.

Andiyono of LBH Semarang said that the province had the highest number of agrarian conflicts in Java Island with 42 cases in 2011.

The cases were spread across 37 subdistricts in various regencies or municipalities, including Cilacap, Pati, Blora, Semarang, Temanggung, Kendal, Batang and Pekalongan.

“The National Land Agency [BPN] Central Java branch has dealt with the surface of the issue, but has not targeted the root of the problem. This is dangerous as it could result in drawn-out conflicts,” Andiyono said.

A number of people from Blora regency, grouped under GERAM, staged a rally at the provincial BPN office, the higher prosecutors’ office, the police headquarters and the environment office earlier
this week.

They demanded transparency in a case involving the alleged illegal occupation of 6.8 hectares of camping ground owned by the state in Lemcadika Pancasona Camping Ground, Bentolo, Tinapan subdistrict, Todanan district, Blora.

GERAM’s coordinator Eko Arifianto said that the land had shrunk from 270,705 square meters to 219,085 square meters because the remainder had been allegedly converted into a construction site for a sugar factory.

He said that the land conversion might be linked to the government’s goal to make the province self-
sufficient in sugar by 2013.

He said the establishment of one sugar factory in Blora and another in Purbalingga was aimed at accelerating the production of sugar to 402,000 tons annually.

Eko said that locals were against the establishment of the sugar factory in Blora because they were concerned that it might affect the environment in Bentolo, which had served as a long-standing environmental bumper zone due to its water resources and historical importance.

He also questioned whether the factory had completed a credible environmental impact analysis.

“A clear status and survey of the site is needed as [the construction of the factory] has caused unrest in Blora. The government has to deploy a team to investigate the case,” Eko said.

Separately, speaking at a forum on Wednesday, head of the BPN Central Java office, Djoko Dwi
Tjiptanto, said his office had contributed to the settlement of land dispute cases through mediation forums involving the disputing parties.

He said that from 2008 to 2011 his office had settled 808 such cases in the province.