A

fter taking 18 days to walk the 500-kilometer distance from Jambi to Lampung, dozens of farmers who were on their way to convey their aspirations to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta, were terrorized when a support truck carrying their supplies was attacked with Molotov cocktails in Menggala, Tulang Bawang regency, early on Saturday.

The back of the truck was gutted by a fire which burned the protesters’ food and medicines.

The incident occurred while the farmers were sleeping in an indoor tennis stadium. Several farmers said that they saw two unidentified people motorcyclists throw the gasoline bombs into their truck.

Chairman of the National Farmers’ Association Yorris Sindu Sunarjan who accompanied the protesters from Jambi said that despite the attack, they would continue their long march to Jakarta.

“This act of terror will not break us and we will continue our protest until the President accepts our demands,” he told The Jakarta Post.

He said the farmers would join with their fellow farmers who have spent 49 days camped outside the Forestry Ministry compound demanding the President uphold Chapter 33 of the Constitution on the government’s obligation to manage all natural resources for the benefit of the majority of the people, and implement the 1960 Agrarian Law to distribute land equally to all the farmers in the country.

“We will never retreat a centimeter before we meet the President and we are now halfway there. We will continue marching to the Presidential Palace to fight for what have been our rights,” he said.

Rachmat Husein Duta Cabe, chairman of the People’s Democratic Party in Lampung, condemned the attack and intimidation which were aimed at dispersing the farmers, saying all groups across the archipelago had their right to express their opinions, aspirations and protests to the government.

The protesters have received warm welcomes from farmers in South Sumatra and the Megou Pak tribe in Tulang Bawang who have expressed their full support for their demand for the government to make a fair distribution of land to farmers.

Rachmat had revealed several days before that local politicians from the National Mandate Party tried to persuade the farmers to stop their protest and go back to their hometown until the government came up with a win-win solution to their land dispute.

Minister of Forestry Zulkifli Hasan is a senior politician of PAN which is chaired by Coordinating Minister for Economy Hatta Radjasa.

Asked about the protesters’ specific demands, Yorris said the farmers were demanding the government return thousands of hectares of land belonging to the Anak Dalam tribe in Jambi, and thousands of hectares in Kunangan Jaya and Mekar Jaya subdistricts which had been sold to private companies.

“The President should also sack the Forestry Minister who must be held responsible for the land disputes,” he said.

Yorris revealed that many regents in Jambi had sold communal lands, and those that had been earmarked for resettlement programs in the province were sold to plantation companies with the approval of the minister.