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.

He said the Bius Raja Paropat indigenous community living in Sigapiton village, which consists of 147 families, formally lodged a protest note regarding the seizure of their indigenous land with the forestry ministry and the Executive Office of the President.

The director of conflict resolution for indigenous forest tenure at the ministry, Mohammad Said, has promised to resolve the dispute, according to Melita, but no immediate effort had been made from the side for the government or the BPODT to resolve the matter.

Melita said that, aside from the land being part of their identity, he and the community were also worried that they might lose their only source of water for irrigation, if the authorities built tourist facilities in the area.

“It would be a disaster for us,” Melita said.

People’s Initiative Development and Study Group (KSPPM) director Delima Silalahi, who is on the indigenous community’s advocacy team, said the government was careless and did not consider the indigenous community as an important subject in the land dispute.

“We are asking for the BPODT authoritative zone to be reviewed; the government should not harm the community in this dispute because, the aim of this program is for equitable distribution of people’s welfare, not just to accommodate investors,” said Delima.

BPODT finance, general affairs and public communications director Bambang Cahyo Murdoko denied accusations of intimidation of local people. “We have never intimidated the community; instead we have been very persuasive in taking care of problems,” Bambang told the Post on Tuesday.

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