Ulma Haryanto – A watchdog on agrarian-related conflict has said it had recorded 106 land disputes across the nation in the whole of last year.
The Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) – in its 2010 year-end report that was brought back into the limelight because of Saturday's violent clash over land in Central Java – pointed out that last year's disputes affected over 500,000 households nationwide.
"The total area under dispute reached over 535,000 hectares of land, and had an immediate effect on the lives of 517,000 families," according to a statement issued in the report by Idham Arsyad, the KPA's secretary general.
"Such conflicts are crisis indicators when it comes to agrarian politics and law. In the current situation, the interests of farmers, fishermen, laborers and indigenous people are neglected."
Idham added that the nation's imperfect judicial system would always side with investors aiming to take control of the land and its natural resources, and not the local population.
In 2010, most of the conflicts were between local people and plantation owners (45 cases), followed closely by cases over the construction of public facilities and infrastructure (41), forestry (13), mining (3), aquaculture and maritime issues (1 case each), Idham said.
"In addition to that, 80 farmers went to prison for defending their rights. In handling conflicts, the government still resorted to violence rather than using mediation and litigation," he added.
In their recommendations, the KPA suggested a special institution be created to solve agrarian conflicts.
Meanwhile, the country's biggest Islamic organization on Tuesday vowed to probe Saturday's clash over disputed land between farmers and the military in which soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets.
Malik Madani, secretary of the consultative board of the Nahdlatul Ulama, said most of the farmers injured in the incident in Kebumen were also NU members and local administrators.
"We'll soon form an investigatory team to look into the shooting incident," Malik said. "Whatever the case, soldiers should never open fire on civilians," he added.
"We'll investigate who was the provocateur behind this incident. We were actually surprised when the accusations were directed at the NU board in Kebumen."
He added that if local NU officials were indeed found to be behind the farmers' demands for the military-controlled land at the center of the dispute, then they were not acting on behalf of the organization.
At least 14 farmers from Setrojenar village in Kebumen were wounded by rubber bullets during the confrontation with soldiers at a military building.