Farouk Arnaz, Anita Rachman & Ulma Haryanto – The police heightened security in the conflict-riven district of Mesuji in Lampung on Monday following weekend violence against a plantation company that activists say should be taken as a sign of things to come.
Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution, a spokesman for the National Police, said hundreds of local officers and Mobile Brigade (Brimob) members had been dispatched to secure the plantation.
He said offices, employees' dormitories, a warehouse and a security post of plantation company Barat Selatan Makmur Investindo were set on fire in the Saturday attack. "The Lampung Police have managed to identify the agent provocateurs and perpetrators in the case, based on video records," Saud said on Monday.
He said the attackers were from the nearby villages of Sritanjung, Keagungan and Nipah Kuning, and that they had also been involved in a November clash that killed one villagers and left eight injured with gunshot wounds and another one with burns.
"The district administration, the land agency and the House of Representatives are still actually trying to mediate the problem, but it isn't final yet and the people are getting impatient," Saud said. BSMI said damage from the weekend violence totaled Rp 1 billion ($110,000).
The conflict between BSMI and residents of the three surrounding villages began 17 years ago. Locals, who claim the land as their own, say the company has not paid them compensation.
Abetnego Tarigan, director of Sawit Watch, a palm oil industry watchdog, warned that more violent clashes over land disputes were likely unless the root cause was addressed.
"The government is taking too long to act on the Mesuji fact finding team's report," Abetnego said, referring to a team formed in December by the government to investigate land conflicts.
The team's report said there were possible human rights violations committed by police officers as well as foul play in the issuance of the permits to companies, including BSMI.
According to a copy of the report shown to the Jakarta Globe, villagers claimed BSMI only compensated them for half the 10,000 hectares it had taken. The problem worsened when a permit was issued to a different company, Lampung Inter Pertiwi, for land bordering BSMI's plot. Villagers claimed that LIP also failed to pay for all of its land.
One of the recommendations is for the permits for the companies to be reviewed and for an investigation into a document mentioning the names of local officials who also received compensation for the people's land from BSMI.
"All the recent clashes between people and police officers have prompted others to do the same, [thinking] that they have to react violently to move the government to action," Abetnego said.
Based on information they gathered from local partners, Abetnego said groups of residents in several locations with similar problems were planning to "occupy" disputed lands.
In 2010, he said, Sawit Watch received 663 reports of disputes between residents and palm oil companies.