Bandung – Dozens of farmers from Pangalengan, West Java, staged a rally at the West Java gubernatorial office in Bandung on Monday, asking the government to mediate their land disputes with the province-owned company.

Asep Indra, one of the protesters, said the farmers in Margamekar in Pengalengan had been intimidated since 2005, when the company intended to retake lands it had neglected for years.

The firm was granted the right to rent 134 hectares of land from the provincial administration in 1970. However, as the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, it neglected the land that, since 2003, had been used by the 1,500 farmers to grow vegetables and food crops.

"There are 30 hoodlums who frequently come and frighten the farmers. They ask us to sign letters of land transfer," Asep said.