A legal aid group called for dialogue and an end to Indonesia's military involvement in Papua amid an ongoing land dispute over a state-backed food and energy project that triggered intense tension and protests.

The Legal Aid Institute of Papua Merauke, based in South Papua province, issued a statement expressing concerns about the military's alleged questioning of villagers over planting crosses on the disputed land in Merauke.

The area in question has been earmarked for a state-backed National Strategic Project for food, energy, and infrastructure, opposed by local tribal communities, including members of the Kamuyend Clan.

"The military's involvement has raised serious questions about the legal basis for their engagement in civil matters," Tedy Wakum, the group's coordinator, told UCA News.

Critics say the project threatens the land and livelihood of thousands of tribal people.

However, the Archdiocese of Merauke has supported the project, sparking protests from Catholics who are among the potential victims.

President Prabowo Subianto has declared his ambition to open 2.5 million new hectares of land in Papua to support national food and energy security, with Merauke at the center of those plans.

Large-scale food estate and sugarcane plantation projects are already operating in the region, accompanied by new infrastructure cutting through indigenous territories.

As part of the project, the government has started developing a 135-kilometer road linking Wanam to Muting to connect the land area at the heart of this dispute.

Critics say the road would open access for corporate expansion into previously isolated areas that indigenous communities have maintained for generations.

For communities like the Kamuyend Clan, the road is not progress, but a threat, Wakum said.

Local sources say that military soldiers arrived when the tribal people held a blockade of the road on May 23 and questioned protesters.

"They, as holders of customary rights, do not accept the presence of the company and the national strategic project on their ancestral land," Wakum added.

The Kamuyend Clan had first planted crosses in the area on October 8, 2025, prohibiting any activity by outsiders.

Those crosses were removed by government officials. However, the clan replanted them and placed logs across the road to impose a blockade earlier this month.

Rights groups have documented a series of abuses and attacks on tribal people amid the dispute.

On Jan. 23, a shelter owned by Kamuyen Clan chief Esau Kamuyen and his family was burned. The next day, an unknown attacker armed with a machete threatened the chief's son, Norton Kamuyen.

Esau's family filed police reports, but none have been arrested.

A Catholic group in Merauke Archdiocese came under criticism from Church officials for supporting tribal people and criticizing Archbishop Petrus Canisius Mandagi for backing the government project.

Source: https://www.ucanews.com/news/tensions-rise-amid-ancestral-land-dispute-in-indonesias-papua/11353