National Human Rights Commission Receives 3,264 Agrarian Conflict Reports from Three Provinces in Past Five Years
Jakarta — The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) received 3,264 complaints regarding agrarian conflicts in North Sumatra, West Java, and Central Kalimantan during the 2020–2025 period.
This information was disclosed by Komnas HAM during an online launch of a report assessing agrarian conflict handling by the Indonesian National Police (Polri) on Monday, 9 March 2026.
“There were 3,264 agrarian conflict complaints submitted to Komnas HAM between 2020 and 2025 across North Sumatra, West Java, and Central Kalimantan,” said Uli Parulian Sihombing, Commissioner for Monitoring and Supervision at Komnas HAM, in a statement.
Sihombing explained that these three provinces were selected because they experience the highest levels of agrarian conflict at the national level.
“This is driven by corporate reports regarding resident activities within concession claim areas,” Sihombing stated.
West Java, meanwhile, is characterised by disputes over property legality, overlapping land certificates, and urban evictions in areas such as Taman Sari and Dago Elos.
Sihombing noted that these issues are triggered by fraudulent land claims and document forgeries.
“They are driven by corporate demands for plasma schemes or corporate social responsibility (CSR) obligations, and assertions of customary land rights,” he said.
Additionally, Sihombing highlighted that the police force occupies a dilemma within the agrarian conflict landscape. Law enforcement personnel in the field shoulder the burden of downstream adjustments caused by upstream structural deadlock, and are often used as shields by corporations or regional governments.
Nevertheless, Sihombing stressed that police must be present to maintain public order and prosecute pure criminal acts independently of land status issues.
“Pure criminal offences such as land fraud, document or notarial act forgery, organised fraud, and security disturbance neutralisation,” he said.