Jakarta – Members of the Dayak community are seeking protection from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) over a land dispute with several coal-mining companies.
Menang Jaya, 50, a resident of Barito Utara in Central Kalimantan, recalled the days when the regency was still surrounded by green forests that have now turned into black coal mining pits.
"Around 200 hectares of my family's ancestral land was being explored and exploited by coal mining companies without asking for our permission, let alone paying us any compensation," Menang told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
In June 2012, the local residents staged a protest in front of Barito Utara regent's office for permitting the companies to operate on their land, he said. "As a result, I was jailed for six months," Menang said, citing that the protest led to a fight with the company's supporters.
On Monday, Menang and a number of Barito Utara residents went to Komnas HAM in Jakarta but there were no commissioners available to hear them. "I am afraid that the dispute will soon get bigger like the one in Mesuji," he said, referring to the 2011 violent agrarian conflict in Mesuji regency, Lampung, where three people died.
According to Menang, in 2005, a mining company, PT Gapco Mining, acquired a mining permit (IUP) to explore around 2,000 hectares of land in Barito Utara, including the land owned by his family.
"Gapco had promised us to pay compensation. However, in 2008, Gapco failed to get an exploration permit and the land is now being explored by PT Yastra Energy without giving us notification," he said.
Menang said another coal-mining company, PT Genta Coal Mining, is also operating on 1,300 hectares of land in the area without asking permission from the local communities.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) energy campaigner Pius Ginting said that he was disappointed because Menang did not get the chance to meet the commissioners earlier this week.
"These companies violated Law No. 4/2009 on mineral and coal mining, which stipulated that mining companies should take local communities' aspirations into account," Pius said. "Komnas HAM should immediately investigate this case should any human right violations have taken place."
Menang said that the mining areas were located only 15 kilometers from Pararawen National Park, the habitat of many endangered species. "Our ancestors had carefully preserved those lands. I don't know what will be left for us in the future," he said. (nad)