Tapos farmers protest police intimidation
Tapos farmers protest police intimidation
JAKARTA (JP): At least 30 representatives of farmers from
Cibedug village near Tapos in Bogor visited the National
Commission on Human Rights again on Monday, complaining of fresh
intimidation by police over a dispute with former president
Soeharto's Tri-S Tapos ranch.
The farmers' spokesman, Juhari, said Bogor Police recently
questioned 10 farmers and four student activists as witnesses
over damage to property on the ranch.
"Some of us were declared suspects after the questioning. It's
a kind of intimidation ahead of evicting us from the land,"
Juhari said. "But we have not been detained so far," he added.
He said the confrontation started last month when the ranch
employees, guarded by dozens of police officers, burned the
farmers' makeshift structures on the disputed ranch land.
The employees also destroyed plants cultivated by the farmers
and substituted grass for cattle, he said.
On Oct. 13, another group of farmers went to the commission to
air the same complaint after some of their associates were
injured in a clash with the employees who tried to drive them
away from the land.
According to Juhari, they were initially allowed to cultivate
an empty plot of land on the ranch, following a verbal agreement
with the ranch manager, identified only as Made, reached in
September.
They then started to plant bananas and other crops on 70
hectares of land of the 751-hectare ranch, he said.
The commission members, Baharudin Lopa, Clementino dos Reis
Amaral, M. Salim and Soegiri, promised on Monday to send a letter
to the police to ask them to stop questioning the farmers.
The farmers also visited the commission in July to ask for
support for their efforts to regain the land which they accused
Soeharto of appropriating illegally.
They also asked to be allowed to plant on the ranch's fallow
land, while preparing their legal case to regain the land.
Rejo Sari Bumi first began to operate in the area in 1974 to
breed high-quality livestock. A number of Soeharto's children own
shares in the ranch management company.
After Soeharto resigned on May 21, dozens of local residents
raided the ranch and staked out land claims. (jun)