Anita Rachman – Disappointment greeted the preliminary conclusions of the government's fact-finding mission on the killings in Mesuji, with victims calling them shallow and unsatisfactory.
"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's fact-finding team is not only wasting time, but also the nation's budget," retired Maj. Gen. Saurip Kadi told a news conference on Tuesday.
"It's clear they do not have the will to resolve the case." Saurip, a member of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) Proclamation 45 Savior Front, helped the residents of Mesuji district in Lampung bring the case to the public's attention last month.
They were responding to the preliminary findings revealed on Monday by the team led by Deputy Justice Minister Denny Indrayana.
Denny said the team found that there were land disputes between local villagers and plantation companies, and that there were nine casualties from conflicts in the three areas in 2010 and 2011, a fact already announced by the National Police last month.
Saurip said those were not the findings the victims had hoped for and demanded more firm solutions, such as revoking of permits of troubled plantation companies, handing back the land to the people, rebuilding homes and public facilities destroyed in the conflict and justice for human rights violations.
During a Monday news conference, Denny skirted around questions on whether human rights were violated in Mesuji. "It hurts Mesuji's people very much, it seems, to say that there has been no human tragedy in Mesuji," Saurip said.
Residents of other areas facing similar land disputes were also present at Tuesday's news conference in Jakarta, including from Mandailing Natal in North Sumatra, Riau, Sampang in Madura and Central Kalimantan. Each representative gave testimony about what had been going on in their areas, mostly regarding land disputes.
"We've been fighting for our land in Rohan Hilir, Riau, for 11 years now," said a woman who identified herself as Fifi.
Jojok South Putra, also from the group, said the clock was ticking and if the government didn't act, the people would because the same tragedy was taking place across the country. "The time bomb is going to explode. We won't settle [for it] anymore. Revoke all the plantation permits," Jojok said.
Indriaswati Dyah Saptaningrum, the fact-finding team's spokeswoman and the executive director of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), told the Jakarta Globe that the recommendations were only preliminary.
She also said the team was doing a legal audit on five plantation companies in the area scheduled to be finished in two weeks. From the audit, she said, the team would know whether companies violated regulations. "We may revoke their permits if we find the companies have violated the regulations," Indriaswati said.