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)