Lampung villagers go to rights body

JAKARTA: A delegation representing some 1,000 villagers from Bakung Udik, Tulangbawang regency in Lampung submitted a complaint to the National Commission on Human Rights here yesterday over what they claim was the unjust appropriation of their land in 1992.

Speaking after meeting with members of the rights body, farmer Wahab, 42, said the dispute involved a 8,700-hectare forest taken over from villagers without proper compensation.

"In 1992, PT Sweet Indolampung (a sugar refinery) promised they would pay us an appropriate amount of money, but it never happened," he said.

The land had been the villagers' primary source of livelihood for "hundreds of years", Wahab said.

But now it had been taken over and planted with sugarcane by the company, which Wahab said was a subsidiary of a giant politically, well-connected conglomerate.

"Now, we suffer from bad water pollution and have lost our source of livelihood," he said.

Wahab told the rights body that he feared villagers would take the law in their own hands if the case was not solved soon. (aan)