Register 45 residents vs PT Silva Inhutani Lampung

The Forestry Minister issued a decree in 1997 granting PT Silva Inhutani Lampung the right to manage 43,100 hectares of land in the Register 45 area in Mesuji regency, Lampung, under the industrial forest concession (HTI) scheme.

With the concession, the company has developed, as of today, 22,000 hectares of the total allocated land to plant rubber, acacia and albizia, which are all sold in the domestic market.

The land dispute between the company and local residents erupted in the late-1990s, when residents from several areas in Lampung occupied parts of the company's land, which had been intentionally left idle for future development.

The newcomers then built permanent houses, and began growing various plants, such as corn and cassava. A community known as Moromoro was then established, and villagers proceeded to independently build and manage their own public facilities, including elementary schools and houses of worship.

More people, mostly impoverished farmers from Java, Bali and Lampung, flocked to the area in early 2009 after the government separated the 2.1 million square-kilometer Mesuji district from Tulang Bawang regency and turned it into a regency along with two other new regencies.

The Post's investigation has found that most of the new settlers bought land from Megou Pak community leaders, who claimed the company's idle land as part of sanctuary land belonging to Lampung's indigenous people. Some farmers said they paid between Rp 5 million (US$550) and Rp 10 million for every hectare of land in the area to Megou Pak community leaders, in exchange for land-gift certificates, which they later found out were neither official nor legal.

"The land that already had ready-to-harvest cassava on it was, of course, sold for a higher price than uncultivated land," explained Mahdi, a farmer who resides in Tugu Roda hamlet.

The settlers then established more than a dozen new hamlets, including Tunggal Jaya, Pelita Jaya and Tugu Roda. However, the local administration has refused to acknowledge their presence, leaving villagers with no ID cards, birth certificates or other official government documents.

Megou Pak community leaders, however, strongly deny that they took advantage of people who had no clear information about the status of the disputed land.

Silva's estate manager Ahmad Safari estimates that thousands of illegal farmers have occupied 12,000 hectares of land in the company's plantation area over the past few years, making it hard for the company to maintain its plants as well as to expand their planting areas. Silva is a subsidiary of Sungai Budi Group – a diversified company with headquarters in Jakarta.

Overwhelmed with the situation, Silva requested support from Lampung Governor Sjachroedin ZP, who established a joint team last year, supported by officers from the Lampung Police and Public Order Agency, to implement an organized plan to evict the illegal farmers from the company's land.

In a raid held by the joint team on Nov. 6 last year, a Megou Pak tribesman, identified as Made Asta from Pelita Jaya hamlet, was killed after he was allegedly shot by a Lampung Police officer.

Lampung Police claimed, however, they have so far been unable to determine the person responsible for Made's death, but handed down warning letters to the official leading the raid, Adj. Sr. Comr. Priyo Wira Nugraha and First Brig. Setiawan, who shot into the crowd without authorization from his superior.

Safari said his company had contributed some money to finance the field operations of the joint team, but said it was allocated only for "food and accommodation". "With fewer than 100 private internal security guards, it was impossible for us to handle the thousands of illegal farmers on the company's land without support from the local authorities," he said.

Sungai Sodong villagers vs PT Sumber Wangi Alam

Located some 40 kilometers from South Sumatra province's main road, Sungai Sodong is a small village in Mesuji district, Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI), inhabited by 600 families consisting of 400 indigenous people and 200 migrants from Java.

The village is located just outside a plantation area controlled by PT Sumber Wangi Alam (SWA), one of three plantation companies operating in Mesuji district. The other two are PT Treekreasi Marga Mulia (TMM), which was acquired by SWA in 2004, and PT Gunung Tua Abadi, a subsidiary of publicly listed firm PT Sampoerna Agro. SWA is owned by businessman Muhammad Akib, former president director of publicly listed plantation giant PT London Sumatra Indonesia.

The dispute involving local residents and SWA, headquartered in Palembang, South Sumatra, has centered on the status of land management cooperation between the two parties.

The villagers, led by prominent local figure Syafei Hasan, known also as Haji Jalang, claimed that they had submitted a total of 534 land certificates to SWA in 1997 in exchange for financial compensation and the rights to manage 1,068 hectares of land in the company's oil palm plantation area under a small-holder scheme. However, as of today, the company had only managed to allocate less than 300 hectares of land for the villagers.

SWA, however, refused to acknowledge the deal, saying it had been made by the residents with the former owner of TMM before SWA took it over seven years ago. The company also argued that the plantation's former management had canceled such agreements with approval from the residents due to administrative matters.

"During the negotiations, the number of Sungai Sodong residents who requested rights to manage the small-holder land kept increasing, making the company reluctant to continue such cooperation," the head of SWA's legal team, Agus Effendi, said.

With no clear settlement, Sungai Sodong residents took the initiative to harvest oil palm fruit in parts of the SWA plantation they considered as "the disputed land", escalating tension in one of the province's most remote areas.

To mediate the land dispute, the OKI administration invited representatives from the company and the residents to attend 10 separate meetings held between October 2010 and April this year. The talks, however, produced little progress as both parties showed reluctance to negotiate their settlement offers.

As illegal harvesting and looting continued earlier this year, SWA hired dozens of private security guards to help secure its harvests – a move approved by local authorities.

The effort, however, resulted in a deadly brawl involving Sungai Sodong villagers, SWA officials and security personnel on April 21. Saktu Macan, 21, Haji Jalang's grandchild, and his colleague Indra Syafei, 18, were killed by SWA private security personnel. Saktu was almost decapitated.

Sabar, a member of SWA's security personnel, died on his way to the hospital being stabbed in the chest during a clash with Saktu and Indra. The police recently exhumed Saktu's body for an autopsy, as witnesses believed he was killed by a gunshot wound.

Hours after the killings, hundreds of Sungai Sodong residents retaliated, attacking a SWA campsite located in the middle of the company's plantation, killing two company officers, Hambali and Hardi, and beheading two security guards, later identified as Sumanto and Saimun.

South Sumatra Police have named a local resident and 13 SWA security personnel suspects in the deadly incident. Eight security personnel, however, remain at large.

Tanjung Raya residents vs PT Barat Selatan Makmur Investindo

Tanjung Raya is a district under the administration of Mesuji regency in Lampung. The district, which comprises 13 villages, came under the media spotlight after a deadly brawl involving residents from three villages – Sri Tanjung, Kagungan Dalam and Nipahkuning – and local police officers broke out on Nov. 10.

The clash, which killed one villager and injured several others, resulted from a long-standing land dispute between the residents and plantation company PT Barat Selatan Makmur Investindo (BSMI), which began after residents accused the company of illegally appropriating 7,000 hectares of their land when it expanded its plantation area in 1994.

The villagers also claimed the company had once promised to involve them in a "plasma cooperation scheme" (a scheme for smallholders). That plan, however, never materialized.

With very few jobs available in the area, many villagers received an offer from the company to employ them as plantation workers on salaries of Rp 31,000 (around US$3.5) per person per day.

"But the company only employed villagers for 10 days per month, making it difficult for us to fulfill our family's basic needs," said 45-year-old Nuri, a mother of four from Sri Tanjung village.

With a settlement of their land dispute still remote, the residents took the initiative in September to collectively harvest oil palm fruit on BSMI land, which they considered to be "disputed areas". In response to the residents' move, the company, according to some residents, deployed hundreds of police and military (TNI) officers to guard its plantation area.

On Nov. 10, a Sri Tanjung resident, identified as Zaelani, 45, was shot dead, while several other villagers were injured after police and TNI officers allegedly shot at a group of villagers who had just finished harvesting oil palm fruit.

Furious, hundreds of villagers went to BSMI's factory and campsite and ransacked the complex's facilities, including more than a hundred boarding houses and several warehouses.

After the incident, BSMI shut down its activities, leaving their oil palm fruit free to be looted by local residents. The company, whose headquarters is located in Bandar Lampung, has yet to make any official statement regarding the incident.

The looting was allegedly coordinated by local leaders, with proceeds from the sales of the fruit used to finance residents' education, the construction of a mosque and public utilities. The fund is managed as part of the village's budget.

The Lampung Police recently named three officers, identified as Adj. Sr. Comr. AZ, Adj. Sr. Comr. PWN and Second Brig. S, as suspects in the deadly incident.

Syahrudin, 48, a Sri Tanjung villager, has requested that the government simultaneously investigate both the fatal shooting and the allegedly illegal land occupation by BSMI, as both cases were substantially related. "The government must settle the land dispute problem to prevent similar violence from occurring," he said.

The case has strong indications of human rights violations, with witnesses claiming shots were fired by the police at close range. Residents have had no contact with civilians or high-profile figures in Jakarta, aside from the Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana. – Hasyim Widhiarto