150 shrimp farmers rally against Brimob intimidation

JAKARTA (JP): About 150 shrimp farmers from the region's largest integrated shrimp firm PT Dipasena Citra Darmaja in Lampung, southern Sumatra, staged a rally at the National Police Headquarters here on Friday over intimidation from some local Mobile Brigade police personnel in the area.

The local farmers claimed that the personnel from the elite unit had been violently forcing them to sell their shrimp to the company.

"The police personnel would stop us on our way to sell our shrimp outside the firm and literally walk us to the company where we had to sell our shrimp for prices that were only about 50 to 60 percent of the prices at the local markets," coordinator of the rally, Afrizal, told reporters.

Afrizal said that many farmers were forced to do push-ups if they were known to sell shrimp outside the company, which has been being embroiled in a conflict with its local shrimp farmers since last year.

He also said that some farmers were forced to sell their shrimp at gun point.

"We already met with the Lampung Police chief but he said that he never assigned those police personnel to the firm, but he did nothing to help us," Afrizal said.

"We, therefore, demand that the National Police retract the mobile police personnel from the firm."

Afrizal said that during a visit to the shrimp firm on July 14, President Abdurrahman Wahid instructed that local farmers were free to use the shrimp ponds and free to sell the shrimp to any party while waiting for the conflict to be resolved.

Afrizal said that when the firm's 16,250 hectares was opened in 1989, every local farmer was given two 40 by 50 meter shrimp ponds which was to be theirs within about six to eight years.

Every farmer who used the ponds initially owed the firm Rp 135 million which they could pay in installments every time they sell their shrimp to the company, Afrizal said.

They were 9,032 local shrimp farmers in the area, he added.

"We found some documents belonging to the company which said that in the first eight years, every farmer should produce 25 tons of shrimp which not only paid our debts but earned us another Rp 100 million to Rp 150 million," Afrizal said.

"But instead the management recently announced that every farmer has a debt of some Rp 500 million. I don't know how they came up with that figure," Afrizal added.

No officials from the company could be reached for confirmation on Friday.

Dipasena is among the assets owned by Syamsul Nursalim, former owner of the now defunct Bank BDNI.

Sjamsul, owner of the Gadjah Tunggal Group, is one of the country's most prominent businessmen and largest debtors to the government.

In a controversial statement made on Thursday, President Abdurrahman said that he had asked prosecutors to delay legal proceedings against Syamsul and two other debtors in the country, namely Marimutu Sinivasan who is chairman of the Texmaco Group and Prajogo Pangestu, chairman of the Barito Pacific Group.

The three businessmen head conglomerates that owe billions of dollars in bad debts to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA). (jaw)