Jakarta – Several members of the Dayak community came to the House of Representatives on Monday to tell lawmakers that their land has been taken by private companies and threatened to take the law in to their own hands if the House offered no help.

At the meeting with House leaders, Ananta, 40, a resident of Seruyan Raya, Central Kalimantan, said that 58 companies had been operating since 2003 on 700,000 hectares of land belonging to the local Dayak community. The companies did not offer any financial support to local residents.

"Those companies took our land. They have also taken other land in East Kotawaringin regency. We staged protests to take our struggle to the regent last year, but it seems that our demands went unheard."

Ananta added that the police had arrested at least 12 residents who protested against the corporations.

Democratic Party lawmaker Eddy Sitanggang said that the House would summon Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan and regional officials for clarification.

Another lawmaker, Eva Kusuma Sundari from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that creating special team focusing on land conflicts would be the best way to resolve recent conflicts and urged lawmakers from other parties to support it.