Indonesia: 5 indigenous rights defenders arrested over land dispute
Event- Country
- Indonesia
- Initial Date
- Jun 24, 2022
- Event Description
Still as usual, agrarian conflicts that never met the bright spot again led to criminalization and the arrest of a number of people.
The latest agrarian conflict in Talisayan, Berau Regency, East Kalimantan involving the Dayak Marjun indigenous community and a palm oil plantation company named PT Tanjung Buyuh Perkasa Plantation (TBPP) which has been going on since 2004 led to the criminalization and arrest of a number of residents by the police.
In a statement released by the National Committee for Agrarian Reform (KNPA) on June 24, 2022, the arrest of Talisayan residents was based on a PT TBPP report accusing residents of harvesting and stealing palm oil belonging to PT TBPP, 6 residents were subject to Article 363 of the Criminal Code regarding theft.
KNPA also spoke loudly through its release which was received by the media crew. KNPA noted in its release that the harvesting of palm oil by the indigenous Dayak Marjun community on their ulayat lands cannot be called a case of theft using a criminal law approach.
Because if you look back, the reason behind the action of harvesting palm oil by the community is because PT TBPP has planted oil palm outside its HGU boundaries and has confiscated the Marjun customary area of approximately 1800 hectares.
The struggle of the Dayak Marjun indigenous people has been going on with various attempts to protest and reject the operational activities of PT TBPP which have confiscated customary land and damaged the environment. However, their efforts actually got a bad response.
They were directed to criminal charges. Whereas Article 66 of Law No. 32 of 2009 concerning Processing and Protection of the Living Environment (UU PPLH) explicitly states "Everyone who fights for the right to a good and healthy environment cannot be prosecuted criminally or be sued in a civil manner."
Responding to this incident, the Head of the Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice (IHCS) Jambi Province, Ahmad Azhari, requested that the indigenous Dayak Marjun community who had been arrested by the police be released immediately.
“It is not relevant to criminalize the efforts of the police against the Marjun indigenous people, they are not only subjects that have been regulated and protected by law but also constitutionally the Constitutional Court 35 gives respect, meaning that for social justice there is the right to control the state over objects of agrarian conflict. We ask that our brothers be released," said Ahmad Azhari, Saturday, June 25, 2022.
Regarding the conflict that afflicted the Dayak Marjun indigenous people, KASBI, KPA, Aman, Walhi, and IHCS who are in coalition with the KNPA demanded that the Prosecutor's Office, Polres and Berau Regency Government immediately release 6 residents who were criminalized and arrested by the police and also for legal proceedings against indigenous peoples. Dayak Marjun immediately stopped.
Then, the President immediately instructed the Ministries and related institutions to accelerate the resolution of the agrarian conflict in the Marjun customary area as part of the commitment to implementing agrarian reform and recognizing and restoring the rights of indigenous peoples.
- Impact of Event
- 5
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Land rights
- Freedom of expression
- Offline
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Indigenous peoples' rights defender
- Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 2.902517043463311
Longitude: 117.3944386532261
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 24 June 2022, five members of the Dayak Marjun indigenous community were arrested by the police on false theft charges over a long land dispute with a palm oil company in Berau Regency, Indonesia.