Violence against farmers in Pakel Village, Licin Subdistrict, Banyuwangi Regency has surfaced again. This time, farmers who are members of Rukun Tani Sumberejo Pakel (RTSP) again had to deal with the brutal actions of hundreds of armed mobs from PT Bumisari Maju Sukses (BMS).

Based on the chronology release from Pakel farmers that we received, the endless series of attacks from PT Bumisari Maju Sukses (BMS) on farmers' cultivated land began on March 5, 2024. On that day, the farmers initially found that the hut on their cultivated land had collapsed and was damaged. In fact, a bottle containing gasoline was also found, which was suspected to be used to burn the hut that had been torn down.

Four days later, on Saturday, March 9, 2024 at around 09:51 a.m., dozens of PT BMS security guards accompanied by a group of people suspected of being hired thugs broke into the reclaiming land owned by farmers in the Pongkor area. They then deliberately knocked down and burned down simple huts built by farmers on the cultivated land. In a release, Pakel farmers revealed that although they came to the location shortly after the incident, the security and a group of people suspected of being hired thugs chose to retreat.

However, the vandalism did not stop there. At around 11:00 a.m. on the same day, the farmers were surprised by the presence of a new hut erected by PT BMS in the middle of the road to the land in the Pongkor area. The presence of this hut blocked the access of farmers to pass on the road. While standing guard at the location, the farmers reportedly witnessed PT BMS cutting down crops and destroying a hut owned by a farmer in the Panasean area not far from Pongkor.

"Therefore, we spontaneously tried to chase and chase them away so that they would not return to cut down our plants. Since then, we have to be on guard so that no more of our plants are cut down," reads a quote in the chronology release.

Furthermore, it was revealed that the access road at the Taman Glugo River bridge that farmers usually pass through to reach the cultivated land was also blocked using a truck that was strongly suspected to belong to PT BMS.

On Sunday, March 10, 2024 at around 10:30 a.m., the riot heated up again on Pakel farmers' cultivated land. This time, the mob from PT BMS, estimated at 150 people, cut down the plants and damaged the farmer's hut in the northern area of Kali Gondang.

Knowing this, other Pakel farmers came to the location. However, the mob mobilized by PT BMS acted even more barbaric by intimidating the farmers, pushing them, and threatening them with sharp weapons. There were even some people suspected of being hired thugs who challenged Pakel farmers to a duel.

"At 11:00 a.m., we started to arrive. At first there were only a few of us. After more farmers arrived, PT Bumisari retreated," reads a quote in the chronology release issued by Rukun Tani Sumberejo Pakel.

Furthermore, in the evening at around 19.30 WIB, one of the Pakel farmers who was conducting routine night patrols suffered physical abuse in the form of a blow to the nape of the neck and had to be rushed to the puskesmas. At that time the victim was patrolling with 6 other farmers. When he saw a shadow, the victim approached but was then attacked by a masked man with a sharp weapon and another man who beat him from behind until he fainted. Before being helped by his colleagues, the three perpetrators had already run away.

On Thursday, March 14 at around 08:37 a.m., the situation heated up again, PT BMS mobilized around 300 people to massively attack Pakel farmers' land again. They deliberately cleared and damaged 2 hectares of farmers' crops in Kali Gondang and Pongkor. More than 3 farmers' huts were also vandalized and burned down on that day.

Although Pakel farmers tried to resist, PT BMS again acted more barbaric by carrying sharp weapons and firearms. There were even two shots fired into the air allegedly to scare the farmers into retreating. As a result, a female farmer was victimized with bruises on her hands, arms and legs.

After attacking Kali Gondang, at around 11:09 a.m., PT BMS also attacked the Pongkor area, allegedly to break the farmers' concentration so that they could more freely damage the plants. In the release, it was mentioned that around 20 banana trees belonging to farmers were cleared by PT BMS. In this incident, some PT BMS workers chose to go home and apologize to Pakel farmers while claiming to have been fooled and paid by the company to attack Pakel farmers.

The escalation of violence experienced by Pakel farmers did not stop there. On Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 08.55 WIB, according to the chronology release sent by Pakel farmers to us, PT Bumisari security began to re-trigger acts of provocation and intimidation of tension by instructing its heavily armed troops to advance and spread to the right and left of the farmers' cultivated land area.

Initially, the farmers were not provoked and remained vigilant in guarding the border to prevent PT Bumisari's troops from breaking in and damaging their crops again. However, soon PT BMS security gave another command by directing its troops to cut down trees on Pakel farmers' cultivated land.

Seeing the situation escalating, Pakel farmers stepped in to prevent further destruction. They blocked PT Bumisari's armed troops who were about to cut down trees in front of their own eyes. This incident triggered a physical clash with mutual pushing and shoving between the two camps.

Quoted from the chronology release, PT Bumisari did not want to back down and still insisted on trying to cut down the farmers' crops even though they had been blocked. As a result, the clash was inevitable.

Not only physical clashes, threats and intimidation were also sent by PT Bumisari to farmers who still insisted on defending their cultivated land. The release stated that some farmers were even threatened with imprisonment if they persisted in blocking land destruction. Even more worrying, PT Bumisari also explicitly threatened to return to destroying farmers' crops if residents' representatives refused to come to court. Of course, such intimidation triggered deep trauma and concern among Pakel farmers who only wanted to defend their cultivated land.

Even so, their determination to defend their cultivated land has not waned. In the release, it was mentioned that after the clash and the attack from PT Bumisari finally subsided at around 09.30 WIB, the farmers actually returned to guard until night to anticipate other unexpected attacks.

"After the clash, we remained on guard until night around our land to ensure that PT Bumisari's troops did not attack or damage our crops again," said Harun, who also faced the incident.