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Indigenous people report intimidation amid land dispute near Lake Toba
After being barred from putting up protest banners during President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s visit to Lake Toba two weeks ago, a group of Sigapiton villagers is now reportedly being prevented from departing for Jakarta to meet with state officials.
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Serenity: Lake Toba is so huge that it looks like an ocean to many. (ANN/The Star/Allison Lai)
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n indigenous community living in Sigapiton village in the North Sumatra regency of Toba Samosir, near Lake Toba, says it is being intimidated over efforts to take back land it claims had been seized by the Lake Toba Authority (BPODT) for tourism.
After being barred from putting up protest banners during President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s visit to Lake Toba two weeks ago, a group of Sigapiton villagers is now reportedly being prevented from departing for Jakarta to meet with state officials.
Village elder Melita Sirait, 81, said they had planned to go to Jakarta in the near future to meet with officials from the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, the Environment and Forestry Ministry and the Tourism Ministry. They planned to question the conflict resolution process regarding the “seized indigenous land” marked as state-owned forestry, which the BPODT had handed to the forestry ministry for tourism development.
However, according to Melita, their plan to meet state officials in Jakarta was prevented by BPODT officials.
He added that previously, when indigenous villagers had been looking to meet Tourism Minister Arief Yahya at the inauguration of the Caldera Toba Nomadic Escape in April, BPODT officials allegedly drove them away.
Melita said he was also upset that banana trees planted by the community on the land had been uprooted by BPODT officials with the reasoning that investors were coming to survey the place.
“It is really painful, we [the indigenous community] constantly face these forms of intimidation, but we are not afraid. We will continue to fight until we take back our stolen land,” Melita told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
