Call for regulations to protect tribespeople and their land

Call for regulations to protect tribespeople and their land

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan) faction in the House of representatives has called on
the government to issue a regulation which recognizes tribal land
ownership rights.

"We have enacted the 1960 Agrarian Law and 1999 Law on
Forestry, both of which recognize a tribe's rights over its own
land, but no government regulations have been issued to enforce
them. This has sparked a number of land disputes between
investors and tribes in many regions," Gusti B. Burnia, spokesman
for the PDI Perjuangan faction, said in a meeting with the Sejati
nongovernmental organization here on Tuesday.

He said the government now could no longer claim to hold
authority over land belonging to tribes living in villages and
forest areas, and then sell it to investors without paying any
compensation to their owners.

"Our faction is deeply concerned about the fact that a lot of
unused land belonging to tribes living in forest areas has been
awarded to local and foreign investors," he said.

Executive director of the NGO Dea Sudarman said the increasing
demands for self-determination referenda reflects the
accumulation of land problems in provinces.

"Many tribes and other social groups in Aceh, Riau and Irian
Jaya have expressed their dissatisfaction over the ignorance of
the previous and current governments of their aspirations," he
said.

Dea said his organization is advocating the rights of several
tribes in Irian Jaya whose land was occupied by the gold and
copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, which has been
operating in the province since 1970s.

He said the American company had agreed to pay a certain
amount of money to the tribes, in compensation for using their
land in the company's mining operations. (rms)