Farmers stage nationwide protest<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): In coincidence with the 41st National Agrarian
\nDay, farmers in Jakarta, Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara), Medan
\n(North Sumatra) and Maumere (East Nusa Tenggara) staged protests
\non Monday, with various demands being made.<\/p>\n
In Jakarta at least 600 farmers from the Indonesian Farmers
\nFederation (FSPI) voiced their demands here to members of the
\nPeople's Consultative Assembly (MPR) ad hoc committee responsible
\nfor agrarian reform and to the National Land Agency (BPN).<\/p>\n
FSPI chairman Henry Saragih urged the Assembly to issue a
\ndecree on agrarian reform that favored farmers' rights.<\/p>\n
\"BPN should not continue the drafting of a law that
\ncontradicts Law No. 5\/1960 on agrarian matters. The decree on
\nagrarian reform should be included in the agenda for the
\nAssembly's plenary session next November.\"<\/p>\n
\"Many existing laws and also the draft of the law on land
\nfavor businessmen or investors rather than farmers,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The protesters also insisted that the government issue a
\nregulation that protected and enforced the agrarian law.<\/p>\n
\"Many of the farmers were arrested for fighting for their land
\nagainst companies that wanted to expand their estate illegally by
\npersuading the farmers to give up their plots.\"<\/p>\n
In Mataram at least 450 farmers from the Indonesian Farmers
\nUnion (STI) swarmed the provincial legislative council on Monday,
\nurging the executive and legislative bodies to keep their promise
\nto help the farmers reclaim their land from the concession-
\nholders and private companies that had been allowed to use their
\nplots for years.<\/p>\n
Rajab, a farmer from Batukute, West Lombok regency, said to
\nThe Jakarta Post after the protest that the West Lombok
\nadministration had \"borrowed' a 3.94 hectare plot belonging to
\nlocal farmers in the 1990s for silk worm farming.<\/p>\n
\"The project failed, but the administration has yet to return
\nthe land, arguing that the farmers did not have a certificate for
\nthe land,\" said Rajab.<\/p>\n
Another farmer from Tanak Awu Kute, Central Lombok regency,
\nsaid that his 500-square meter plot, along with 850 hectares of
\nland belonging to other farmers, was acquired by the local
\nadministration in 1995, with compensation of only Rp 200,000 per
\n100 square meters.<\/p>\n
\"The local administration then planned to build an
\ninternational airport. The plan was aborted after then minister
\nof transportation Giri Suseno said that the area was not suitable
\nfor an international airport. However the administration did not
\nwant to return the land but charged rent to the farmers of Rp
\n750,000 per hectare per year,\" Suryadi said.<\/p>\n
Probosutedjo<\/p>\n
In a related development, Banjaran residents of Cintaraja
\nvillage in the regency of Langkat, North Sumatra, said in Medan
\nthat they wanted their 70.3 hectare plot, now being used by a
\nprivate tobacco plantation company controlled by Probosutedjo,
\nthe half brother of former president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
Ariono, the protesters' spokesman, told the Post on Monday
\nthat he had just arrived from Jakarta after conveying the
\nfarmers' demands to President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Home
\nAffairs Minister Hari Sabarno and speaker of the House of
\nRepresentatives Akbar Tandjung last week.<\/p>\n
Langkat is almost 250 kilometers north of Medan.<\/p>\n
\"The company PT Buana Estate had used military personnel to
\nintimidate land owners into giving up a total of 70.3 hectares of
\ntheir land in Banjaran, Cintaraja village, in 1986.
\nThe land, then occupied by 79 families, has since then been
\ncontrolled by a company that holds the land use permit,\" said
\nAriono.<\/p>\n
The families, formerly workers on a tobacco plantation
\nbelonging to the Dutch colonial government, occupied the land in
\n1930. The land was outside the tobacco plantation.<\/p>\n
In 1972 the tobacco plantation was bought by PT Cintaraja,
\nowned by Probosutedjo. In 1986 the company changed its name to PT
\nBuana Estate and since then efforts to acquire the 70.3 hectares
\nof land were stepped up.<\/p>\n
According to a gubernatorial letter dated Dec. 27, 1982 and
\nsigned by then governor E.W.P. Tambunan, the Banjaran people's
\nland was not included in the area owned by Cintaraja, Ariono
\nsaid. (bby\/54\/42\/sur)<\/p>",
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