Dayaks charged in oil palm dispute

Down to Earth No. 42, August 1999

A long-running land dispute between oil palm plantation company PT London Sumatra and indigenous Dayak landowners has resulted in large-scale military and police repression in East Kalimantan.

On May 7th mobile brigade riot police moved in to put an end to a protest by Benuaq Dayaks in Jempang sub-district, Kutai, East Kalimantan. The Benuaq villagers had staged a six-month occupation of a base-camp at Muara Nayan owned by the plantation company PT London Sumatra (Lonsum) in protest against the violation of their land rights. The protestors had shut down operations at the camp, seized heavy machinery and set fire to part of the camp, destroying two office buildings, a fertiliser store and some workers' accommodation. The police action took place at 6 am while the villagers were holding a traditional ceremony: sacred artefacts were scattered and the villagers terrorised. Many fled into the forest. Twelve people were arrested and charged, mainly with damaging company property. Staff from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who supported the villagers were forced to leave the area at gunpoint. The security forces raided the nearby village of Perigiq, shots were fired and villagers fled into the forest to avoid the shooting. Two people from this village had earlier been abducted by eight men in civilian clothes and taken to Tenggarong police station, where they were roughly treated and threatened, then interrogated and charged. They were not allowed any legal representation.

Since May's police raid on the base camp there has been little information on the plight of the Benuaq villagers: NGOs based in the provincial capital Samarinda were forbidden to enter Jempang sub-district and villagers were reported to be too frightened to leave their homes. Some people remained in hiding in the forest. Both the villagers and NGOs staff in Samarinda have been subjected to intimidation and threats by the security forces. There have been rumours of more police raids and the head of East Kalimantan's police issued a 'shoot on sight' order if there were any further demonstrations.

PT Lonsum entered the area in 1996 to develop 16,500 hectares of oil palm plantations. The Benuaq's land rights were ignored, their productive agro-forests cleared and burial sites destroyed. Representations to the company and government officials got nowhere, even when it was discovered that the company had not yet acquired the legally required permit to start its activities.

Two days after the occupation was ended, PT Lonsum resumed operations. East Kalimantan governor H Suwarna said that he would bring the two sides to the negotiation table and at the end of May a meeting was arranged between the East Kalimantan Indigenous Dayaks Association (PDKT), the local police chief, PT Lonsum representatives and district government staff. The meeting agreed that PDKT should conduct a field investigation into the dispute as soon as possible. Four of the arrested villagers were to be released, although the other eight would remain in custody.

PT Lonsum has a bad name in East Kalimantan for other reasons too: it was one of the companies accused of large scale burning and contributing to the forests fire disaster of 1997/8. Police since dropped charges against the company due to 'lack of evidence'. Lonsum has also faced action by local communities at other sites in South Sumatra and at Deli Serdang, North Sumatra.

[Sources: Statement by the Independent Union of Plantation Workers (Perbuni), April/99; Support locals against oil palm company and oppression by the authorities, Down to Earth, 7/6/99. For more information on this appeal, circulated by email in response to a request by Indonesian NGOs, contact: dtecampaign@gn.apc.org.]

More oil palm – more disputes

The violent approach that the authorities used to deal with the PT Lonsum dispute in East Kalimantan may be linked to the fact that the province is a target area for large-scale oil palm development. In other areas under intensive oil palm development, such as West Kalimantan, Sulawesi and parts of Sumatra, many other conflicts over land and forest destruction have been documented. Some disputes, in areas where plantations are established and palm oil processing plants have been built, concern the pollution of local water resources.

Oil palm is one of the export commodities which is being promoted by the government as an source of foreign exchange. And Indonesia's economic 'recovery programme', led by the International Monetary Fund, is encouraging the expansion of oil palm in the effort to generate enough income to service the country's colossal debts. Investment is being encouraged by a staged reduction of export taxes on palm oil in line with IMF requirements, from 60% in January this year down to a targeted 10% by the end of the year.

These policies mean vast swathes of the nation's forests being converted to oil palm. The present area of 3.2 million hectares is expected to increase at a rate of 330,000 hectares per year. The sector will be dominated by foreign players: seventy five per cent of the 650 investors applying for permits to convert forests into oil palm plantations are foreign companies. In East Kalimantan alone, the area planned for oil development is 3.5 million hectares, or around one sixth of East Kalimantan's total land area. The province is already under pressure from numerous coal mining projects – including Kaltim Prima, Indonesia's biggest – as well as the Kelian gold mine (both mines are operated by the UK-Australian multinational, Rio Tinto). Logging, and fires have ravaged much of the remaining forests. Respiratory diseases from smoke from the fires, drought and food shortages have hit the population hard in the past two years.

The massive expansion of oil palm plantations and the continuation of police intervention on the side of big business will only add to the suffering of the region's indigenous population and do nothing to change the perception that central government in Jakarta exists to serve the interests of companies rather than protect the rights of its citizens.

New research published by Adelaide University implies that the new laws on regional autonomy could well make things worse. "Much of the stimulus for oil palm production comes from regional governments interested in promoting local economic development and building their tax base." Local governments permitted to keep more of the revenues from local resources will be keen to develop oil palm in their areas if land remains cheap and opposition can be kept under control. What is required to balance theses business interests is strong local democracy that protects the rights of local communities – a requirement that, unfortunately, has not been written in to the new laws.

(Sources: Jakarta Post 5/6/99, 24/5/99; World Rainforest Movement Bulletin 20, February 1999; Tree Planting in Indonesia: Trends, Impact and Directions, by L. Potter and J. Lee is available on the CIFOR website: http://www.cgiar.org/cifor)