State handling of land row denounced

JAKARTA (JP): Local governments have a tendency to side with corporations in land conflicts, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights said yesterday.

Local governments, as stated in a 1993 presidential decree, should act as an impartial mediator in such disputes, Clementino Dos Reis Amaral told reporters after meeting with representatives of the Mentawai people in West Sumatra, who have been in conflict with plantation and forestry companies.

Amaral said the commission planned to ask the Minister of Home Affairs to write to local administrators reminding them of the 1993 decree which obliged them to remain impartial.

Amaral, who hails from East Timor, also promised the Mentawai people that the commission would look into their case and help to find a solution.

Mentawai is a group of small islands off West Sumatra and is home to some 55,000 people. The four major islands are Siberut, Sipora, South Pagai and North Pagai.

The islanders are fighting to keep their land against four companies which apparently already have operational licenses from various government agencies.

PT Maharani Puricitra Lestari and PT Citra Mandiri Widyanusa, both plantation companies, have licenses to open up large acres of plantations in Siberut and in North Pagai and South Pagai.

In North Pagai and South Pagai, the villagers also face PT Minas Pagai Lumber Corporation which has been felling trees in forest areas they claim as being theirs for generations. In Sipora, they face PT Bhara Union, also a timber company.

In a statement, representatives said the timber companies repeatedly ignored their demands to stop logging activities.

They said the two plantation companies had employed the tactic of setting one tribe against another to obtain land in the islands. (05)