Farmers stage nationwide protest

Farmers stage nationwide protest

JAKARTA (JP): In coincidence with the 41st National Agrarian
Day, farmers in Jakarta, Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara), Medan
(North Sumatra) and Maumere (East Nusa Tenggara) staged protests
on Monday, with various demands being made.

In Jakarta at least 600 farmers from the Indonesian Farmers
Federation (FSPI) voiced their demands here to members of the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) ad hoc committee responsible
for agrarian reform and to the National Land Agency (BPN).

FSPI chairman Henry Saragih urged the Assembly to issue a
decree on agrarian reform that favored farmers' rights.

"BPN should not continue the drafting of a law that
contradicts Law No. 5/1960 on agrarian matters. The decree on
agrarian reform should be included in the agenda for the
Assembly's plenary session next November."

"Many existing laws and also the draft of the law on land
favor businessmen or investors rather than farmers," he said.

The protesters also insisted that the government issue a
regulation that protected and enforced the agrarian law.

"Many of the farmers were arrested for fighting for their land
against companies that wanted to expand their estate illegally by
persuading the farmers to give up their plots."

In Mataram at least 450 farmers from the Indonesian Farmers
Union (STI) swarmed the provincial legislative council on Monday,
urging the executive and legislative bodies to keep their promise
to help the farmers reclaim their land from the concession-
holders and private companies that had been allowed to use their
plots for years.

Rajab, a farmer from Batukute, West Lombok regency, said to
The Jakarta Post after the protest that the West Lombok
administration had "borrowed' a 3.94 hectare plot belonging to
local farmers in the 1990s for silk worm farming.

"The project failed, but the administration has yet to return
the land, arguing that the farmers did not have a certificate for
the land," said Rajab.

Another farmer from Tanak Awu Kute, Central Lombok regency,
said that his 500-square meter plot, along with 850 hectares of
land belonging to other farmers, was acquired by the local
administration in 1995, with compensation of only Rp 200,000 per
100 square meters.

"The local administration then planned to build an
international airport. The plan was aborted after then minister
of transportation Giri Suseno said that the area was not suitable
for an international airport. However the administration did not
want to return the land but charged rent to the farmers of Rp
750,000 per hectare per year," Suryadi said.

Probosutedjo

In a related development, Banjaran residents of Cintaraja
village in the regency of Langkat, North Sumatra, said in Medan
that they wanted their 70.3 hectare plot, now being used by a
private tobacco plantation company controlled by Probosutedjo,
the half brother of former president Soeharto.

Ariono, the protesters' spokesman, told the Post on Monday
that he had just arrived from Jakarta after conveying the
farmers' demands to President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Home
Affairs Minister Hari Sabarno and speaker of the House of
Representatives Akbar Tandjung last week.

Langkat is almost 250 kilometers north of Medan.

"The company PT Buana Estate had used military personnel to
intimidate land owners into giving up a total of 70.3 hectares of
their land in Banjaran, Cintaraja village, in 1986.
The land, then occupied by 79 families, has since then been
controlled by a company that holds the land use permit," said
Ariono.

The families, formerly workers on a tobacco plantation
belonging to the Dutch colonial government, occupied the land in
1930. The land was outside the tobacco plantation.

In 1972 the tobacco plantation was bought by PT Cintaraja,
owned by Probosutedjo. In 1986 the company changed its name to PT
Buana Estate and since then efforts to acquire the 70.3 hectares
of land were stepped up.

According to a gubernatorial letter dated Dec. 27, 1982 and
signed by then governor E.W.P. Tambunan, the Banjaran people's
land was not included in the area owned by Cintaraja, Ariono
said. (bby/54/42/sur)