Housewives lodge protests over their husbands' arrests

JAKARTA (JP): A group of 12 housewives and their relatives from Cibeliung village in Pandeglang, West Java, questioned on Friday the legitimacy of the arrests of 20 farmers by police following a dispute over a 16-hectare plot of land.

The delegation visited the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the National Commission on Human Rights to express their grievances.

The delegation's spokesman, Yusuf, said the 20 farmers were arrested on March 11 because of a land dispute with state forestry company Perhutani.

"Hundreds of police officers from the mobile brigade, helped by hoodlums from outside the village, searched for the farmers and arrested them in the middle of the night," Yusuf said.

He said the officers and the hoodlums arrived at the village in four trucks and six Kijang vans, forcefully entered houses and abducted the farmers.

The officers pointed their guns at the farmers, while the hoodlums threatened to rape their wives, he said.

One of the women, Darinah, said that as well as arresting her husband, Sutarjo, the officers also seized land certificates and other property tax documents.

"We come here to seek justice. I want my husband to be freed," said Darinah, the mother of six children, in tears.

She said the farmers also demanded that the officers and hoodlums deployed to guard the disputed land be withdrawn.

Lawyer Sedarita Ginting of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute said Sutarjo and the other 19 farmers were arrested without any warrants, adding that the farmers were still being detained at Banten regional police station.

"We will sue the police for illegally arresting the farmers," Ginting said.

Evicted

He said the farmers, who have cultivated the land since the Dutch colonial era, were evicted by Perhutani in 1986 without any compensation.

He said that, since then, the farmers have frequently been involved in clashes with security guards from the company.

Yusuf said the farmers also demanded that the certificates and tax documents confiscated by police be returned.

"Although Perhutani claims to be the legitimate owner of the land, we still pay taxes for the disputed plot," he said.

The villagers, consisting of at least 500 families, have gradually regained their land since the forced resignation of president Soeharto in May last year, Ginting said.

They have thus far lodged complaints with the Ministry of Forestry and the office of the State Minister of Land Affairs, but have received unsatisfactory responses, he said.

He said the farmers also complained to the rights agency, which asked the government and other concerned parties to allow the farmers to continue cultivating the partly empty land.

According to Ginting, the farmers started cultivating the land again in January, by planting bananas and corn as well as building temporary shelters there.

He said the shelters and the crops were destroyed by those responsible for taking the 20 farmers into custody.

Sugiri, a commission member, said the commission would send letters to the National Police and Banten Police to withdraw their personnel from the disputed land.

Sugiri would also ask the government to allow the farmers to cultivate the land until the dispute between the farmers and the company could be satisfactorily settled. (jun)