Uwazi

Ratusan aktivis Pergerakan Mahasiswa Islam Indonesia (PMII) cabang Kabupaten Pamekasan, Madura, melakukan demonstrasi di Kantor Pemkab Pamekasan, Kamis (25/6/2020).

Dalam aksinya, massa PMII Pamekasan menyuarakan perihal maraknya dugaan adanya ratusan tambang galian C ilegal di Kabupaten Pamekasan yang dibiarkan beroperasi.

Namun, terjadi insiden bentrok antara aktivis Pergerakan Mahasiswa Islam Indonesia (PMII) cabang Kabupaten Pamekasan, Madura dengan aparat kepolisian.

Berdasarkan informasi yang diterima TribunMadura.com, sebanyak 28 orang kini menjalani pemeriksaan oleh pihak Polda Jatim, Jumat (26/6/2020).

Tiga orang peserta demo mengalami luka-luka dan sempat menjalani perawatan di RSUD Dr H Slamet Martodirdjo Kamupaten Pamekasan.

Peserta demonstrasu yang mengalami luka di kepala adalah Ketua Rayon Sakera IAIN Madura, Fiki.

Kemudian, Wakil Ketua 1 Pengurus Cabang (PC) PMII Pamekasan, M Yasin mendapat luka memar pada bagian dada, dan Saiful Anam memperoleh luka memar pada bagian tubuh.

Adapun 20 orang lainnya merupakan anggota kepolisian dari Satuan Samapta Bhayangkara (Satbhara) Polres Pamekasan.

Kemudian, lima orang anggota Satpol PP Kabupaten Pamekasan serta tiga orang perwakilan mahasiswa atau massa PMII Pamekasan.

Kabid Humas Polda Jatim, Kombes Pol Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko mengatakan, bahwa pengusutan insiden ini telah dikomandoi langsung oleh Kabid Profesi dan Pengamanan (Propam) Polda Jatim Kombes Pol Puji Hendro Wibowo.

Artikel ini telah tayang di Tribunmadura.com dengan judul Aksi Demo PMII Pamekasan Tuntut Tambang Galian C Ilegal Ditutup Berujung Bentrok, 3 Orang Terluka, https://madura.tribunnews.com/2020/06/26/aksi-demo-pmii-pamekasan-tuntut-tambang-galian-c-ilegal-ditutup-berujung-bentrok-3-orang-terluka. Penulis: Luhur Pambudi Editor: Elma Gloria Stevani

On 25 June 2020, three students were beaten by the police for protesting against Government shortcomings on illegal mining sites in Madura, Indonesia.

YouTube removed the live webinar �Exploring non-homophobic religions� stating the content breached community guidelines. The International Federation of Journalists and its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia urge YouTube to explain the removal of the live stream.

The Association of Journalists for Diversity (Sejuk) broadcast on June 24 was interrupted after 48 minutes by YouTube after users reported the webinar for breaching community guidelines. YouTube did not specify what section of the community guidelines Sejuk breached.

In response, Sejuk noted there was no reason to stop the live stream and it did not break the law. YouTube restored the vide on June 25 on Sejuk�s channel.

YouTube has a history of discriminating against the LGBTI community with claims from YouTubers saying the platform�s algorithm systematically demonetises LGBTI content. A study by the Sealow research group found YouTube automatically demonetised 33 per cent of videos with LGBTI content in the title. A spokesperson from YouTube rejected claims stating the algorithm discriminated against LGBTI content.

A joint statement signed by Sejuk, AJI, and several other Indonesian human rights organisations said YouTube contravened Indonesia�s constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and expression, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

On 24 June 2020, the Association of Journalists for Diversity (Sejuk), had its webinar interrupted during YouTube live broadcasting, after users reported it to breach community guidelines in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Dozens killed in rallies

More than 40 people were killed in August and September 2019 after anti-government protests turned violent in Papua and West Papua provinces, which make up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island.

The unrest was sparked by perceived heavy-handed and racist treatment of Papuan students by security personnel on Java Island. It prompted the government to send police and military troops to the Papua region and block the internet for three weeks.

Papuan activists and their supporters, inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, recently went on social media using the hashtag �PapuanLivesMatter� to denounce what they see as racist treatment across Indonesia of Papuans.

Protests broke out across the United States sparked by a video that showed a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man, George Floyd, who said he could not breathe and later died, as other officers stood nearby.

On Wednesday, Amnesty International urged the Indonesian government to release the seven who were convicted in Balikpapan.

�We deeply regret the court�s decision. Although the sentences are much lighter than those demanded by the public prosecutors, we believe the prisoners of conscience should not have been arrested, jailed and prosecuted,� AI Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said in a statement.

The Papua region was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-administered ballot known as the Act of Free Choice. Many Papuans and rights groups said the vote was a sham because it involved only about 1,000 people.

The provinces of Papua and West Papua make up one-fifth of Indonesia�s land mass but only 5.9 million of Indonesia�s 270 million people live there.

On 17 June 2020, seven detained minority rights defenders were sentenced to improsonment on treason charge for their role in 2019 Papuan protests by a court in East Kalimantan, indonesia.

A court in Indonesia has sentenced two indigenous farmers to eight and 10 months in prison respectively for stealing oil palm fruit from a plantation company that is itself accused of stealing their land.

On June 15, the Sampit district court in East Kotawaringin, in the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan, ruled Dilik Bin Asap from Penyang village guilty of harvesting palm fruit on land claimed by the villagers but cultivated by PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (PT HMBP), an affiliate of the BEST Group. The court also found James Watt, a prominent land rights activist, guilty of ordering Dilik and other farmers to harvest the fruits.

As a result, the panel of judges sentenced Dilik to eight months in prison and James to 10 months in prison.

Another farmer, Hermanus Bin Bison, was arrested by police along with Dilik, and he died in custody, reportedly after being refused proper treatment for his ill health.

James said he wasn�t guilty and would appeal the verdict.

�But this fight isn�t my own,� he said. �It�s the Penyang villagers�, so I ask their approval first to determine the next step.�

Bama Adiyanto, a lawyer representing James and Dilik, said the judges had ignored the fact that ownership of the harvested land was still under dispute, and therefore the company didn�t have a case that the farmers had stolen from its property.

According to the Penyang villagers, PT HMBP has cleared forests and cultivated oil palms on land outside its concession, encroaching onto the community�s land. They have lodged complaints with multiple authorities, including the East Kotawaringin district government and council, and the national human rights commission, known as Komnas HAM.

In 2010, the district chief officially declared that PT HMBP was operating outside its concession and ordered it to cede the disputed land back to the community. The following year, the district council determined that the company had illegally planted on 1,800 hectares (4,450 acres), and echoed the district chief�s call to hand the land back to the villagers. Komnas HAM also called on the company to follow through.

But it wasn�t until October 2019 that PT HMBP acted. Even then, it said it would only relinquish control of a fraction of the disputed land � 117 hectares, or 290 acres � either completely or partially, offering to manage it in collaboration with the villagers. Ignored evidence

Bama said lawyers for the farmers had presented evidence in court that the harvested land wasn�t part of PT HMBP�s concession.

�The location is clearly outside the company�s [plantation area] and is owned by the locals,� he said. �In fact, it�s the company that�s in the wrong for cultivating on the location.�

Dimas Novian Hartono, the Central Kalimantan director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said one of the key pieces of evidence corroborating the villagers� claim was a copy of the outcome of an investigation by the government�s land agency, BPN, conducted in 2012.

But the judges said the evidence presented couldn�t be used in the trial because the charges against Dilik and James were criminal in nature, and not a civil lawsuit, and thus the question of the ownership of the land wasn�t at issue in this case.

�So [the judges] didn�t look deeper into the root of the case,� Dimas told Mongabay.

Also during the trial, neither PT HMBP nor the prosecutors could present evidence to back up the company�s claim that it owns the permit to the harvested land.

Kurnia Warwan, an agrarian law expert at Andalas University, said this fact alone should have been enough to compel the judges to acquit James and Dilik.

�That [verdict] is very surprising,� he said. �From the beginning, this theft case has already failed to meet the element [of a crime].�

Kurnia added that the plantation law used by the prosecutors in charging James and Dilik could also be wielded against PT HMBP, given that it expressly prohibits companies from cultivating on locals� lands without their consent.

James and Dilik, Kurnia said, were therefore victims of criminalization.

Walhi also highlighted irregularities in the case. Among them: the company filed a police report against Dilik and Hermanus at 7 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 17. Yet they only started harvesting the palm fruit � their alleged crime � at 9 a.m.

James was arrested on March 7 by the Central Kalimantan police in Jakarta, where he had gone to report the earlier arrests of Dilik and Hermanus to Komnas HAM and the witness protection program, or LPSK.

Walhi said the three farmers were charged shortly after the arrests.

�All three were even interrogated [by the police] without being accompanied by legal advisers and while they were exhausted after the trip to the Central Kalimantan police headquarters,� Walhi said.

Bama said he also had difficulties meeting the three farmers after the police detained them.

�We couldn�t meet them immediately [after the arrest],� he said. �The local police always had reasons to prevent us from meeting [them] and hearing their version of the story.�

In response to the verdict, PT HMBP legal manager Wahyu Bimo said the harvested land is part of the area that the company had offered to managed in collaboration with the villagers.

�That land is planned to be developed into a plasma plantation,� he said, using the local term for smallholder plots that supply larger plantations. �The cooperative is already established. Those who join the opposition [against the company], including those who harvested [the palm fruit], are not a part of the cooperative for the plasma [program].�

Bama said he and the other lawyers for James and Dilik would file an appeal against the criminal conviction of the farmers, as well as a civil lawsuit against PT HMBP over ownership of the land. Dimas from Walhi, who is part of the legal team, said they planned to get the buy-in of all the villagers in order to mount a solid lawsuit.

On 15 June 2020, Dilik Bin Asap, indigenoud peoples' rights defenders, and James Watt, land rights defender, were sentenced to jail term over false accusations of a palm oil company by a court in East Kotawaringin Regency, Indonesia.

Student journalists from the University of Lampung (Unila) were the targets of digital attacks on June 10, amid preparations to hold an online discussion on racism in Papua. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia condemn the digital attacks and call the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation immediately.

Writing for the student publication, Teknokra, two journalists, Chairul Rahman Arif and Mitha Setiani Asih received threats after they planned an online discussion on racial discrimination against Papuans. While Chairul received intimidating messages on WhatsApp, sending him his identity card and threats to his parents� security, the attacker sent Mitha dozens of food deliveries despite not ordering food and hacked Mitha and the publication�s Instagram and Facebook account.

One of the planned speakers for the discussion, Tantowi Anwari, who works for the Journalists Association for Diversity (Sejuk) and his wife also received threats.

AJI notes the same pattern of attacks, hacking a person�s social media account, sending anonymous messages and calls on WhatsApp and receiving unexpected food deliveries has been used many times against human rights and media freedom activists in Indonesia.

On 10 June 2020, Chairul Rahman Arif and Mitha Setiani Asih, students, were intimidated, doxxed ahead of a planned online discussion on Papua by unknown perpatrarors, likely State actors in Lampung, Indonesia.

Sebanyak empat orang pemuda diancam kurungan empat bulan penjara karena nekat menggelar aksi demonstrasi saat pemberlakukan Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar (PSBB) di Kabupaten Bengkalis, Riau. Keempat pemuda itu menggelar aksi 'Kamisan' terkait perkara Bongku.

Empat pemuda tersebut berinisial, RHS, 23, warga Kecamatan Bengkalis dan tiga orang warga Kecamatan Rupat berinisial, MHR, 21, MAA, 21 serta MH, 23.

"Memang benar, keempat pemuda telah ditetapkan sebagai tersangka karena menggelar aksi sebagaimana dari informasi yang beredar di media sosial ada undangan ajakan untuk melaksanakan aksi "Kamisan" terkait perkara Bongku, Kamis (21/5/20) lalu," Kepala Satuan Reskrim Polres Bengkalis, AKP Andrie Setiawan, Rabu, 27 Mei 2020.

On 27 May 2020, four community-based defenders were arrested by the police for staging a demonstration against a fellow community member imprisonment in Bengkalis Regency, Indonesia.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) has urged the police to investigate the alleged doxing (dissemination of personal information) and intimidation of a journalist working for popular news outlet Detik.com following his report on President Joko �Jokowi� Widodo�s plan to monitor �new normal� preparation measures in malls in Bekasi, West Java.

�We demand the police investigate the alleged crime of doxing and threats of violence and murder against the journalist until the perpetrators are brought to court,� AJI Jakarta chairman Asnil Bambani and AJI Jakarta advocacy team head Erick Tanjung said in a joint statement on Thursday.

The harassment was apparently inspired by an article titled �Jokowi to lead the opening of several malls in Bekasi this afternoon amid pandemic� published by Detik.com on Tuesday.

Asnil said the journalist obtained all of the information from the Bekasi administration�s head of external publication.

On 26 May 2020, a media worker was victim of doxxing, death threat, online harassment by unknown social media users after reporting the president's plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions in Bekasi, Indonesia.

Ratusan massa penggarap lahan PTPN II yang menamakan dirinya Serikat Petani Simalingkar Bersatu (SPSB), melakukan aksi demo ke kantor Bupati Deli Serdang, Kantor DPRD dan kantor BPN Kabupaten Deliser�dang, Senin (25/11).

Koordinator aksi, Arus Wiyono menilai, pemerintah daerah seolah tinggal diam dalam masalah konflik agraria pada lahan yang mereka klaim sudah diusahai sejak 1951.

Untuk itu, massa panggarap yang terga�bung dalam SPSB dalam orasinya me�ngusung poster dan spanduk yang isinya menuntut menghentikan darurat agraria khususnya di Simalingkar dan Pancurbatu, Kabupaten Deliserdang. Aksi mendapat pengawalan ketat pihak kepolisian dan Satpol PP Deliserdang.

Usai melakukan aksi di Kantor Bupati Deliserdang, massa bergerak ke kantor DPRD Deliserdang guna mendesak anggota DPRD Deliserdang segera membuat reko�mendasi kepada Bupati Deliserdang untuk mengesahkan tanah tersebut untuk petani, sebagai tindak lanjut dari kerja DPRD Deliserdang sebelumnya.

Kabag Sekretaris Perusahaan PTPN II, Irwan yang didampingi Kabag Hukum Pertanahan PTPN II, Kennedy Sibarani dan Humas PTPN II, Sutan Panjaitan, serta Sastra SH Mkn dan Dr Ali Yusran Gea SH Mkn MH selaku Kuasa Hukum PTPN II mengatakan, mereka menghormati aksi demo yang dilakukan para petani walaupun pihak PTPN II telah memenangkan gugatan petani di PTUN dengan putusan NO 119/G/2018 yang menyatakan gugatan petani sebagai penggugat tidak diterima dan dikuatkan lagi dengan putusan PTUN Medan no.146/B/2019.

Pihak PTPN II menghimbau masyarakat yang telah menguasai lahan yang masih bersertifikat HGU No 171 Simalingkar A dengan luas 854.26 ha berakhir tahun 2034 agar secara sukarela mengembalikannya ke pihak PTPN II yang diberikan amanah untuk mengelola aset Negara.

On 15 May 2020, Ardiansyah Surbakti, community-based defender, was arrested by the police without warrant over alleged property damage claimed by a farming company in Medan, Indonesia.

Nasib Naas menimpa seorang wartawan media online bernama Ahmad Sahib warga desa Kediri kabupaten Lombok barat. Lantaran Berita yang ia tulis berimbas terhadap pemukulan yang di lakukan oleh seorang Kepala Dusun Karang Bedil Utara berinisial MN di Di Wilayah Desa Kediri induk, Kecamatan Kediri Kabupaten Lombok Barat.

Kejadian bermula ketika Ahmad Sahib menulis berita seorang nenek tua renta asal Dusun Karang Bedil Utara yang kehidupannya di bawah garis kemiskinan, dalam berita tersebut diterangkan bahwa nenek tua itu jarang mendapat bantuan sosial dari pemerintah terutama disinyalir minim perhatian dari pemerintah setempat.

Laman berita online yang dishare di beberapa akun media sosial warga itu VIRAL dan menuai protes serta tanggapan para netizen.

Di duga tidak terima dengan pemberitaan itu, oknum Kadus MN mendatangi rumah korban dan melayangkan bokem mentah ke arah wajah AS. Akibat hantaman ini, tulang hidung AS patah dan bersimbah darah.

Korban langsung di larikan ke Rumah Sakit Gerung untuk mendapatkan pertolongan.

Salah seorang warga Desa Kediri yang berada di Lokasi kejadian mengatakan, Pemukulan terjadi ketika korban berada di rumahnya sedang menunggu waktu berbuka puasa, lalu datang pelaku, kemudian terjadi cek cok mulut dan berakhir dengan pemukulan.

" kejadiannya tadi sebelum datang waktu berbuka puasa, karena kebetulan saya tetanggan sama korban, saya dengar mereka cek cok mulut, setelah saya datang, korban sudah berlumuran darah." Ungkap Radi salah satu tetangga korban.

Ditambahkan oleh Radi yang juga sebagai petugas puskesmas Kediri bahwa saat ini kondisi korban sangat kritis mengingat tulang hidungnya mengalami patah ringan, dan rahangnya juga mengalami luka sehingga berlumuran darah.

"Saat ini, pasien sedang dalam perawatan medis dan kami akan rujuk ke rumah Sakit Umum Patut Patuh Patju untuk mendapatkan perawatan medis lebih lanjut." Jelas Radi.

On 13 May 2020, Ahmad Sahib, media worker, was beaten by village chief for sharing the story of a poor elderly villager in need of assistance ignored by local authorities in Kediri, Indonesia.

Activists have condemned the arrest of a journalist in Indonesia for reporting on a land conflict between a palm oil company owned by a powerful tycoon and indigenous groups in Borneo.

Police arrested Diananta Putra Sumedi on May 4 and charged him under a controversial 2016 law on electronic communications. The law has frequently been used to bring charges against individuals, including journalists, on the nebulous grounds that their writings or statements �cause offense.� Diananta faces up to six years in prison if convicted.

In a statement, the International Federation of Journalists called on the Indonesian police to release Diananta, the chief editor of the news site banjarhits.id and correspondent for investigative outlet Tempo.

�IFJ has seen continued efforts to criminalize journalists in Indonesia,� it said. �The Press Council has a clear complaints mechanism for solving disputes, and this has been ignored. IFJ urges the police to release Diananta immediately, respect decisions made by the Press Council and ensure the safety of journalists in the country.�

The case stems from a news report published by banjarhits.id and syndicated by the bigger news site Kumparan on Nov. 19, 2019, under the heading �Jhonlin seizes land, Dayaks complain to the South Kalimantan Police.� It quoted indigenous Dayak people in the village of Cantung Kiri Hilir, South Kalimantan province, as being critical of the palm oil firm Jhonlin Agro Raya (JAR). The company is part of the Jhonlin Group owned by tycoon Andi Syamsudin Arsyad, popularly known as Haji Isam, part of the large ethnic Bugis community that migrated to Borneo from the island of Sulawesi.

The report quoted Sukirman, a Dayak member, as saying that the alleged land grabbing by JAR could trigger conflict between the Dayak and Bugis communities. Sukirman also said in the article that Haji Isam had treated the Dayak people unjustly.

Following the article�s publication, Sukirman filed a complaint with the police, saying he had never said the things attributed to him. He also said he didn�t want to inflame ethnic tensions and preferred to resolve the land dispute amicably or through the courts.

He also complained to the Press Council, which mediates disputes over news reporting. The council ruled on Jan. 9 that the article breached the journalistic code of ethics, and on Feb. 5 it recommended that Kumparan publish a right of reply and delete the original article, explaining why.

JAR also reported Kumparan to the Press Council, leading to the news site taking down three articles related to the land conflict between the company and the villagers, including the one quoting Sukirman. The other two were headed �For the sake of palm oil, Jhonlin displaces the land of people in three villages in Kotabaru,� and �Dayaks in all Kalimantan will occupy contested land in Kotabaru.�

A Google search for the land conflict now yields no media coverage of the case, except stories about Diananta�s arrest. JAR did not respond to an inquiry by Mongabay.

Yet despite the Press Council having already ruled on the case, the police pushed on with the criminal complaint. They refused to release Diananta after his lawyers argued that his family depended on him for their livelihood and cited the risk of keeping him in a crowded jail cell amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The police said Diananta might destroy evidence relating to the investigation if released. They also said he might publish more stories deemed �negative.� South Kalimantan police spokesman Mochammad Rifai said investigators had questioned all parties involved in the case, as well as experts, and concluded there were grounds for criminal charges.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), the Indonesian affiliate of the IFJ, condemned the continued detention in the wake of the Press Council�s resolution and the compliance of the respective media outlets.

�According to the memorandum of understanding signed by Press Council and the Chief of National Police, it is clear that every dispute related with journalism should be settled in the Press Council,� AJI said. �AJI condemns the arrest which shows the fact that police neglected the MoU and do not respect the press freedom.�

This isn�t the first time a journalist�s coverage of Haji Isam�s Jhonlin Group has landed them in hot water. In 2018, Jhonlin subsidiary PT Multi Sarana Agro Mandiri (MSAM) filed a police complaint against Muhammad Yusuf over at least 23 online news reports about a land conflict involving the company.

Parts of MSAM�s concession in Pulau Laut, a small island off the coast of South Kalimantan, are claimed by several other firms as well as by farmers who accuse the company of bulldozing their crops to make way for its plantation, which Yusuf reported on. Police arrested him on the same charges under the electronic communications act as Diananta. Yusuf died of a heart attack after more than a month in custody.

On 4 May 2020, Diananta Putra Sumedi, media worker, was arrested by the police for reporting on a land conflict between company and indigenous peoples in Kotabaru Regency, Indonesia.

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On 1 May 2020, Sahril Helmi, media worker, was assaulted by the village chief for reporting maladministration of COVID-19-earmarked budget in South Halmahera Regency, Indonesia.

Indigenous rights activists in Indonesia have condemned local authorities over the death in custody of a farmer accused of stealing palm fruit from a plantation company in Borneo.

Hermanus Bin Bison, 35, was among three indigenous farmers in the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan jailed since Feb. 17 following a complaint by PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (HMBP), an affiliate of the BEST Group. The company itself stands accused of stealing the farmers� land, but has never been investigated.

Hermanus died shortly after midnight on April 26 at a hospital in East Kotawaringin district, Central Kalimantan, were he was transferred from detention after falling ill, including being unable to walk, on April 25. He is survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 6 and 7.

Aryo Nugroho, the farmers� lawyer and head of the legal aid institute in Palangkaraya, the provincial capital, said Hermanus had suffered ill health throughout his time in detention but never given adequate treatment.

At a court hearing on April 6, in which Hermanus was confined to a wheelchair because of difficulty walking, his legal team asked that he be released to seek treatment. The court rejected the request. On April 9, a doctor who visited him in his jail cell, which he shared with several other inmates, found he had asthenia, a condition of abnormal physical weakness, and a fever of 39� Celsius (102� Fahrenheit), prompting fears he might have COVID-19 and risk infecting others in the overcrowded jail cell.

The lawyers once again petitioned to have him released, and this time the court acquiesced. At Murjani General Hospital in East Kotawaringin later that day, however, doctors said he had a simple cold and could be returned to jail. Back in custody, Hermanus�s condition continued to deteriorate, until he was hospitalized again on April 25. He died just hours later.

Aryo said the initial hospital check was inadequate. �The treatment only consisted of him being questioned. There was no checkup like blood tests or chest x-rays,� he said.

Dimas Hartono, the director of the Central Kalimantan chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said Hermanus had received better treatment from the doctor summoned to the jail than from the hospital. Despite his being sent to hospital with a high fever the first time, hospital staff didn�t record his temperature, Dimas said.

Police also failed to act on the doctor�s advice that Hermanus be held separately from the other detainees, instead keeping him in a small cell with several other people.

�The recommendation by the doctor who was summoned to the jail was not followed up on by either side,� Dimas told Mongabay.

Aryo said the actions by the hospital and the police raised questions about Hermanus�s death. �They said his condition was not an emergency, and yet he passed away two weeks later.�

Nur Hidayati, the national director of Walhi, said the way Hermanus was treated was in stark contrast to how politicians or businesspeople implicated in corruption were dealt with. Corruption convicts have been known to enjoy lavish lifestyles behind bars by bribing prison staff to get their cell upgraded, often to the level of a studio-type apartment. Graft convicts have also been documented abusing their right to hospital visits to actually go shopping or pursue other leisure activities on the outside.

Nur called on higher authorities to investigate the judges, prosecutors and police for allegedly hampering Hermanus�s access to adequate medical treatment. She also urged the government to address the root of the problem, which is the long-standing conflict between the villagers and the palm oil company.

�The agrarian conflict, which is the root cause of Hermanus� death, has to be solved immediately,� Nur said.

PT HMBP legal department staff Hendri declined to comment on the issue of Hermanus� detention, saying only that the firm would let the law take its course.

�For the case of the three people, because this is a legal matter, we entrust this case to the authorities,� he said.

Nur also called for Hermanus�s two co-defendants, James Watt and Dilik Bin Asap, to be released from detention as part of a wider government program to ease prison overcrowding in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. But Aryo said he was pessimistic the court would allow it, given that the judges haven�t let Hermanus�s death delay the ongoing trial.

The latest hearing took place on April 27.

�Our hope was to get the trial postponed out of respect for Hermanus�s death,� Aryo said. �But the judges went ahead with their decision, even though his body hasn�t been buried yet.�

On 26 April 2020, Hermanus Bin Bison, indigenous rights defenders, died in custody while under trial, after not receiving adequate healthcare in East Kotawaringin Regency, Indonesia.

The Indonesian government should immediately release at least 70 Papuan and Moluccan activists imprisoned for peacefully voicing their political views, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should adopt measures to ensure that police and prosecutors, especially in the eastern provinces, protect free expression rights in accordance with a 2018 constitutional court ruling.

From April 25 to 27, 2020, the police in Maluku arrested 23 activists, including at least two children, who allegedly participated in flag-raising ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the Republic of South Moluccas (Republik Maluku Selatan, RMS) in 1950. The police indicated that seven of the activists will be charged with treason under article 106 of the criminal code, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

�Detaining and prosecuting Papuan and Moluccan activists for peacefully voicing their political views backtracks on the government�s commitments to free expression,� said Andreas Harsono, senior Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch. �These activists should never have been imprisoned, and detaining them in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic could be deadly.�

On April 25, three activists walked openly into the Moluccan police headquarters in Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, carrying the RMS flag. They shouted �Mena muria,� a popular salute among Moluccan people, traditionally used among boat rowers that means, �You go, I follow.� Police arrested the three men � Johanes Pattiasina, Simon Viktor Taihutu, and Abner Litamahuputty � as well as four other activists who unfurled the flags in some other towns.

On April 24, a court in Jakarta, Indonesia�s capital, convicted six Papuan activists for treason and sentenced them to between eight and nine months in prison. The five men and one woman were involved in a rally on August 28, 2019, outside the State Palace in Jakarta, during which they unfurled the Morning Star flag, a symbol of Papuan independence. The rally, involving more than 500 people, was held to protest racist attacks by the police against Papuan students in Surabaya, Java Island, on August 17.

The six activists are among 63 political prisoners in prison for peacefully expressing their political beliefs. On April 15, 2020, their lawyers submitted information on their cases to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Human Rights Watch, along with Amnesty International, Kontras, and other human rights groups, have for more than a decade pressed the Indonesian government to release political prisoners.

In May 2015, President Joko �Jokowi� Widodo pardoned and released five Papuan prisoners from Abepura prison, Jayapura. He publicly promised to release all Moluccan and Papuan prisoners, and said he wanted �to stop the stigma of conflict in Papua and to create a sense of peace.� His administration gradually released nearly 100 political prisoners, mostly by reducing sentences.

In January 2018, Indonesia�s Constitutional Court rejected a judicial review to annul the criminal code�s six treason articles, including article 106, but found that those articles were often disproportionally applied against political activists raising the Morning Star flag in Papua and the RMS flag in the Moluccas Islands.

President Jokowi should drop all charges for peaceful political expression, order the release of all political prisoners, and review the failure of law enforcement officers, especially in the Moluccas Islands and Papua and West Papua provinces, to follow the Constitutional Court ruling, Human Rights Watch said.

Concerned governments, including the United States, European Union member countries, and Australia, should raise the situation of Indonesia�s political prisoners in bilateral meetings. The Polish government should raise concerns about the treatment of Jakub Skrzypski, a Polish national who was arrested in West Papua and sentenced in May 2019 to five years in prison under article 106.

Human Rights Watch takes no position on claims to self-determination in Indonesia or in any other country. Consistent with international law, however, Human Rights Watch supports the right of all individuals, including independence supporters, to express their political views peacefully without fear of arrest or other forms of reprisal.

�President Jokowi succeeded in releasing many political prisoners in his first five years in office,� Harsono said. �Jokowi�s second term should not produce as many political prisoners as his predecessor. These cases are a bitter betrayal of his government�s prior policy and contrary to a top court ruling.�

On 25 April 2020, seven HRDs were arrested by the police while peacefully protesting for self-determination in Ambon, Indonesia.

An Indonesian court sentenced six activists to prison on Friday after finding them guilty of treason for participating in a protest last year calling for a self-determination referendum in the restive Papua province.

Surya Anta, Ambrosius Mulait, Charles Kossay, Dano Tabuni, and Arina Elopere were ordered to serve nine months, while Isay Wenda was handed an eight-month prison term during a hearing at the Central Jakarta district court via video link to observe social distancing measures imposed to suppress the COVID-19 pandemic.

�The defendants are guilty of treason," Judge Agustinus Setya Wahyu Triwiranto said during the sentencing.

The activists were arrested in August 2019 after taking part in a rally in Jakarta. Prosecutors accused them of demanding a referendum on self-determination for Papua and waving separatist Morning Star flags in front of the presidential palace.

All but one of the activists are native Papuans.

The protest was among many held across the country amid unrest in Papua triggered by perceived ill-treatment of Papuans on Java island.

Barring an appeal by prosecutors, who had sought an 18-month sentence for each of the activists, Isay Wenda could be released next month, while the rest are expected to walk free in June.

�But I can�t be sure, because it [the release] depends on the prosecutor. If they appeal, it will be different,� Tigor Hutape, a lawyer for the activists, told BenarNews.

�We have not yet communicated with the defendants,� he said. �We will decide later whether to appeal or accept the verdict.�

More than 40 people were killed in the unrest between August and September 2019 in Papua and West Papua provinces, which make up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island.

Jakarta has blamed the separatist United Liberation Movement of West Papua and the National Committee for West Papua for the uprising that started in mid-August, when thousands joined protests calling for a vote on self-determination.

Police arrested dozens of pro-referendum Papuan activists in the wake of the unrest, which prompted authorities to send thousands of additional police and troops to the region.

Human rights groups have urged President Joko �Jokowi� Widodo�s government to release the detainees, whom they described as political prisoners, saying they were at risk of contracting COVID-19 during the pandemic.

On Friday, London-based human rights group TAPOL called for their immediate release, citing statements from Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, who previously said political prisoners should be among the first to be released amid the pandemic.

�We therefore reiterate the urgency of releasing all political prisoners currently detained in overcrowded prisons where it is impossible to practice physical distancing,� the group said in a statement.

Indonesia reported 436 new infections on Friday, taking its cumulative tally to 8,211, with 42 new fatalities, bringing the country�s death toll to 689.

Earlier this month, more than 60 political prisoners, mostly the Papuan activists detained over pro-independence protests, wrote a letter to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and three U.N. special rapporteurs, asking for help in urging Indonesia to release them unconditionally.

�Not only is their detention illegal, it also threatens their safety,� said Jennifer Robinson, one of the human rights lawyers representing them.

The Papua region was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-administered ballot known as the Act of Free Choice. Many Papuans and rights groups said the vote was a sham because it involved only 1,000 people.

The provinces of Papua and West Papua make up one-fifth of Indonesia�s land mass but only 5.9 million of Indonesia�s 250 million people live there.

Tensions rose in Papua in December 2018 after separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew building a highway in Nduga regency. Authorities immediately sent more than 750 soldiers and police to the region after the killings.

On 24 April 2020, six indigenous rights defenders were sentenced to jail term by the Central Jakarta district court for organising a peaceful protest in 2019 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

A public coalition identified as the �Koalisi Tolak Kriminalisasi dan Rekayasa Kasus� has pressed President Joko �Jokowi� Widodo to release Ravio Patra from prison after the member of the Open Government Partnership Steering Committee (OGP SC) was arrested on late Wednesday night, April 22.

�Stop the criminalization process and stop all acts that attempt to silence other citizens,� said the coalition�s representative and SAFEnet executive director Damar Juniarto in today�s press release.

According to Damar, the police�s legal standing behind Ravio�s arrest is flawed as he said that Ravio recalled his Whatsapp had been hacked.

�When Ravio turned on his Whatsapp, a notice appeared 'You've registered your number on another phone' when he checked his SMS inbox, there was a request for an OTP to be sent,� Damar Juniarto explained.

The message that became central in his arrest read; �Crisis has arrived, time to burn! We must gather and partake in the national simultaneous looting on April 30. All the stores nearby are free to be looted.�

Damar said that Ravio immediately reported the incident to Whatsapp, which was confirmed by the chat app�s head of security that Ravio�s account had been hacked.

He encouraged police to investigate the hacker who used Ravio�s Whatsapp account to send the provocative message instead of arresting Ravio. �The motive behind this is plotting Ravio Patra as the person initiating public unrest,� he said.

On 22 April 2020, Ravio Patra, NGO worker, had his WhatsApp hacked, and was later arrested by the police based on text messages sent by the hacker in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Polisi membubarkan pertemuan di Kantor Walhi Yogyakarta terkait pembahasan kegiatan sosial bagi masyarakat yang terdampak pandemi virus corona atau Covid-19, Sabtu (19/4) kemarin.

Kadiv Advokasi dan Kawasan Walhi Yogyakarta, Himawan Kurniadi, mengatakan pertemuan yang digelar sekitar pukul 19.20 WIB itu membahas soal evaluasi pembagian bantuan pangan dan makser bagi masyarakat.

Namun, di tengah pertemuan, ketua RT, pihak kelurahan, anggota Babinsa hingga anggota Koramil Kecamatan Kotagede mendatangi lokasi dan meminta pertemuan dibubarkan.

"Karena bertentangan dengan Surat Edaran Wali Kota No: 440/820/SE/2020 Tentang Pencegahan Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19)," kata Himawan dalam keterangannya, Minggu (19/4).

Padahal menurut Himawan, pertemuan itu sudah dilakukan berdasarkan SOP pencegahan virus corona. Setelah berdiskusi, akhirnya disepakati pertemuan bisa dilanjutkan dengan jumlah peserta berkurang enam orang dan harus selesai pada pukul 22.00 WIB.

Namun, diungkapkan Himawan, sekitar pukul 20.55 WIB, seseorang yang mengaku dari Polsek bersama enam rombongan dengan mobil linmas dan sekitar 40 orang tak dikenal masuk ke dalam ruang pertemuan.

"Memberikan intimidasi, teriak-teriak dengan caci maki, bahkan mengajak beradu fisik. Enam peserta pertemuan tetap tenang, menjaga jarak dan memutuskan untuk meninggalkan tempat untuk menghindari tindakan kekerasan," tutur Himawan.

Walhi menyesalkan aksi pembubaran tersebut. Sebab, dikatakan Himawan, kegiatan sosial yang dilakukan untuk membantu masyarakat di tengah pandemi Covid-19 seharusnya diproteksi, bukan malah direpresi.

"[Menuntut] pemerintah pusat, pemerintah daerah, kepolisian, militer, dan aparat lain menghentikan seluruh tindakan represif terhadap inisiatif-inisiatif baik rakyat dengan kedok Covid-19," ucap Himawan.

Sementara itu, Kapolsek Kotagede Kompol Dwi Tavianto membantah melakukan pembubaran kegiatan pertemuan tersebut. Ia menyebut pihak kepolisian saat itu hanya sekadar memantau sebab ada keramaian warga.

"Enggak ada pembubaran," kata Dwi kepada CNNIndonesia.com, Minggu (19/4).

Dwi menuturkan pertemuan yang digelar di kantor Walhi itu tidak diberitahukan kepada pihak RT setempat. Alhasil, pihak RT pun mendatangi lokasi.

Menurut Dwi, siapapun yang menggelar pertemuan harus lebih dahulu memberitahukan ke pihak lingkungan setempat. Apalagi, saat ini sedang terjadi wabah virus corona.

"Bukan di tengah pandemi saja, kalau ada kegiatan rapat segala macam ya lingkungan sekitar dikasih tahu, ketentuannya kan gitu ya," tutur Dwi.

On 19 Aprl 2020, WALHI Yogyakarta, environmental NGO, was visited by police and military who disbanded an event it organised to distribute free masks in response to COVID-19 pandemic in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Mahasiswa Ternate Bergerak (MARAK) menggelar aksi di kantor DPRD Kota Ternate untuk menolak adanya RUU Omnibus Law dan mendesak pemerintah untuk menangani secara serius penyeraban virus Corona (Covid-19).

Dalam aksi tersebut, setidaknya empat orang mahasiswa ditangkap paksa dan ditahan oleh Polres Ternate, Senin (23/3/2020) dan kemudian dilepaskan pada sore tadi sekitar pukul 17.00 Wita.

Mereka adalah Rudhy, Chay, dan Risdat (ketiganya anggota Pembebasan) dan Andrean (Anggota PMII).

Dilansir dari lpmkultura.com, Awalnya, puluhan mahasiswa berkumpul di tugu Makugawene, Kelurahan Kalamata, Ternate Selatan, menunggu kawan-kawannya yang lain dari arah Ternate Utara menuju ke DPRD untuk melakukan aksi bersama. Namun belum lama kemudian, polisi dengan pelaratan lengkap mengumumkan agar mahasiswa membubarkan diri.

Hingga sekitar pukul 12.35 WIT, polisi langsung merengsek masuk di kerumunan massa yang duduk tepat di pelataran jalan di tugu tersebut dan melakukan tidakan represif terhadap mahasiswa. Mahasiswa langsung dikejar-kejar dan dihujani dengan water cannon hingga massa berhamburan mengamankan diri.

�Kami baru berkumpul, menunggu kawan-kawan yang lain. Tiba-tiba sudah ada imbauan dari Polres agar kami bubar. Disitu, saya langsung di tangkap, dan diseret lalu di pukul,�kata Rudi, salah satu peserta aksi yang kena represif aparat dan ditangkap.

Wajahnya memar, hampir sebagian tubuhnya luka-luka, dibagian pelipis matanya bengkek keluar darah. Dia dipukul oleh polisi dan intel berpakaian preman.

Selain Rudi, ketiga kawannya yang ikut diseret oleh Polres dan katanya diamankan ke lingkungan kantor DPRD yang berjarak hampir 100 meter dari tugu Makugawene itu juga mengalami hal serupa. Badan-badan mereka penuh memar. Menurut pengakuan salah satunya, Dhat, mereka bertiga awalnya lari mengamankan diri di sebuah gudang berdekatan dengan tugu Makugawene, namun polisi berhasil melihat mereka. Ketiganya mengaku dikeroyok oleh polisi di dalam gudang tersebut hingga salah seorang diantara mereka hidungnya keluar darah dan bengkak.

Menurut keterangan Kordinator MARAK, Aslan Syarifudin, padahal rencana aksi itu aksi damai walau tak mengantongi ijin aksi. Dia bilang surat sudah dimasukkan, namun polisi beralasan belum bisa karena antisipasi penyebaran dan penularan virus corona.

�Kalau polisi mau mengambil tindakan persuatif, tapi ini tidak, baru saja aba-aba, langsung bubarkan massa aksi dan tangkap.�katanya.

�Kami juga takut virus corona, pengen sehat, tapi ancaman Omnibus Law inilah yang membuat kami harus bergerak!.�lanjut dia.

Aslan bilang, kawan-kawannya yang longmars dari arah utara sudah sampai di Kelurahan Jati, namun tak bisa lagi melanjutkan perjalanan ke kantor DPRD karena sudah mendapat kabar bahwa rencana aksi menolak Omnibus Law, sebuah regulasi yang menyederhanakan, memangkas, dan menghapus sejumlah aturan itu telah dibubarkan paksa aparat.

Kordinator aksi, Adi Gipantara juga mengatakan, bahwa aksi tersebut belum dilaksanakan, poster dan spanduk belum dibentangkan, mereka masih duduk-duduk menunggu kawan-kawannya dan melakukan breafing terkait imbaun polisi soal tidak bisa aksi dan massa harus membubarkan diri.

�Semua perlengkapan aksi pun belum di buka, tapi masih merapikan massa aksi untuk membicarakan hasil imbauan kepolisian. Dalam perjalannya, baru merapikan kawan-kawan untuk breafing, membicarakan imbauan polisi itu, Ada kawan yang surat diseret, ditangkap, lalu dihujani water cannon, akhirnya bubar,� ujarnya pasca aksi tadi.

Adi menambahkan, bila tadi kawan-kawannya belum dibebaskan dari Polres, mereka akan menggeruduk Polres �Kami sangat mengecam tindakan represif tersebut dan akan membuat pernyataan sikap kecaman,� tambahnya.

Tindakan aparat tersebut, bagi Adi cukup memperburuk situasi demokrasi Indonesia. Represifitas itu menjadi catatan, bagaimana demokrasi kian hari terancam. �Kita akan tetap menolak Omnibus Law, dan perampasan ruang hidup lainnya.�

On 23 March 2020, four students were arrested and beaten by the police for organising a peaceful protest alegedly in violation of VOCID-19-related limitations on gathering in Ternate, Indonesia.

Years of conflict between residents of Pagar Batu village and oil palm plantation company PT Artha Prigel in Lahat regency, South Sumatra, reached a climax recently as company security guards allegedly killed two farmers from the village.

Lahat Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Irwansyah said a security guard, identified as 38-year-old UB, had been named a suspect for allegedly stabbing the two farmers: Putra, 32, and Sumarlin, 38.

�We are still investigating the case and questioning other witnesses. It is possible that we will name new suspects later,� Irwansyah said.

The conflict has been ongoing since 1993, when the company forced Pagar Batu residents to give up their land in exchange for what they considered paltry compensation. According to the village�s youth forum, the total area of the disputed land is about 180 hectares.

�We�re still defending our land because it is the source of our livelihoods. There�s no more farm land in the village. Where else would we make our livings,� a resident named Andriansyah told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, adding that the villagers had produced coffee, durian and rubber on the land for generations.

PT Artha Prigel is a subsidiary of PT Bukit Barisan Indah Permai of the Sawit Mas Group. The government granted the company an additional 35-year permit to cultivate the 2000 ha of land in 2006.

After the New Order regime collapsed in 1998, the villagers made an effort to reclaim their land, urging the company to return it 20 years later, in 2018.

Several efforts to bring the two parties to terms have been made but to no avail. Lahat Regent Cik Ujang arranged a proposal for the company to give up 20 percent of its plantation area to villagers under the plasma smallholders scheme, in which the villagers would sell the produce to the company.

The offer was rejected, and villagers kept working the land without an agreement.

On the morning of March 21, the plantation company moved to evict the villagers from the land. A number of company security guards, accompanied by police officers carrying rifles, arrived to enforce the eviction.

Villagers resisted, and violence broke out between the two groups. In addition to the two farmers who died during the clash, two others were injured. They were taken to the Lahat General Hospital.

The clash ended after the police fired warning shots and company security personnel withdrew from the land.

�The dead farmers have been buried. Their graves are a symbol of our fight. The injured farmers are recovering,� said Andriansyah.

Civil society organizations, including the South Sumatra chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the Palembang Legal Aid Institute, lambasted what they considered the company�s aggression. They wrote an open letter to President Joko �Jokowi� Widodo.

�We urge the President to evaluate palm oil plantation permits that have been leading to land conflicts,� South Sumatra Walhi executive director Hairul Sobri said.

He said the police should uncover the truth instead of defending one party in the conflict. He said facts had been manipulated regarding the naming of suspects.

�The National Police should also investigate the regional police for providing security assistance to the company during the conflict.�

Pagar Batu villagers have demanded that the government investigate the case thoroughly and work to settle the ongoing land dispute.

PT Artha Prigel spokesperson Yulius Rafli did not respond The Jakarta Post�s request for comment.

On 21 March 2020, two environmental rights defenders were killed, and two injured, by security personnel of PT Artha Prigel palm oil company, as result of a long-term land conflict in Lahat regency, Indonesia.

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On 12 March 2020, staff from Front Rakyat Indonesia untuk West Papua, NGO, was prevented by the police from holding a peaceful demonstration asking for West Papua referendum in Malang City, Indonesia.

Police in Indonesia have jailed three indigenous farmers for allegedly stealing oil palm fruit from a plantation company that is itself accused of stealing their land.

Police in East Kotawaringin district, in the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan, arrested Dilik Bin Asap and Hermanus Bin Bison from Penyang village on Feb. 17. They were accused of harvesting palm fruit on land claimed by the villagers but cultivated illegally by PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (HMBP), an affiliate of the BEST Group.

On March 7, police arrested prominent land rights activist James Watt in Jakarta, where he had gone to report the earlier arrests to the national human rights commission, known as Komnas HAM, and the witness protection program, or LPSK. They flew him back to Central Kalimantan and charged him with orchestrating the alleged theft by Dilik and Hermanus.

The case has sparked outrage among indigenous rights activists. In the wake of the arrests of Dilik and Hermanus, community members blocked the road leading to PT HMBP�s plantation. Police arrested 11 of them before releasing them shortly after.

The case is the latest in a litany list of land disputes between forest communities and corporate concession holders, with authorities almost invariably siding with the latter each time.

According to the Penyang villagers, PT HMBP has cleared forests and cultivated oil palms on land outside its concession, encroaching onto the community�s land. They have lodged complaints with multiple authorities, including the East Kotawaringin district government and council, and Komnas HAM.

In 2010, the district chief officially declared that PT HMBP was operating outside its concession and ordered it to cede the disputed land back to the community. The following year, the district council determined that the company had illegally planted on 1,800 hectares (4,450 acres), and echoed the district chief�s call to hand the land back to the villagers. Komnas HAM also called on the company to follow through.

But it wasn�t until October 2019 that PT HMBP acted. Even then, it said it would only relinquish control of a fraction of the disputed land � 117 ha, or 290 acres � either completely or partially, offering to manage it in collaboration with the villagers.

The recent arrests stem from this statement, according to Dimas Novian Hartono, the Central Kalimantan director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi): the community took the statement at face value, he said, and believed the land was theirs once again to harvest from. But PT HMBP saw it differently and filed criminal charges against Dilik and Hermanus.

The Central Kalimantan police have denied the arrests are directly linked to the land dispute, characterizing the charges as purely criminal.

But activists call it a blatant attempt by the company to quash opposition to its land grab, citing among other irregularities the late-night arrest of James Watt as he attempted to report the matter to higher authorities in Jakarta. James was previously featured by Mongabay and The Gecko Project in a joint investigative report into the palm oil licensing practices of Darwan Ali, the former head of Central Kalimantan�s Seruyan district.

Arif Nur Fikri, the head of advocacy at the independent NGO Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said the police should have looked at PT HMBP�s complaints of theft in the wider context of the land dispute.

�This agrarian conflict has received recommendations [in support of the community] from Komnas HAM, the district council, the district chief, and the district land agency,� Arif said.

Arie Rompas, from Greenpeace Indonesia, said the case was another classic example of how corporations wielded the police to crack down on critics.

�The problem is that the police aren�t carrying out their function of upholding justice,� he said. �They worked in response to a complaint filed by the company, which has clearly engaged in illegal activities� by planting outside its concession.

Walhi�s Dimas said his office would continue pressing for the release of and dropping of criminal charges against James, Dilik and Hermanus. A truce with the company is not an option, he added.

�Making peace is the same as acknowledging the presence of the company, which has robbed the people of their land,� Dimas told Mongabay.

On 7 March 2020, James Watt, land rights defender, was arrested by the police just before reporting the former arrest of indigenous farmer to the national human rights commission in Jakarta, Indonesia.

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On 27 February 2020, nine students were arrested by the police for conducting a peaceful protest against an allegedly unfair court ruling over a racism incident in Sorong City, Indonesia.

Senin pagi menjelang siang, salah satu pengurus Konfederasi Kongres Aliansi Serikat Buruh Indonesia (KASBI) Darto dikagetkan dengan kedatangan sekitar 10-15 orang ke sekretariat di Cipinang, Jakarta Timur. Mereka tampak berumur 15-17 tahun dan berteriak-teriak agar KASBI dibubarkan karena menolak omnibus law. �Ada masa tidak jelas menyuarakan bubarkan KASBI. KASBI menghambat omnibus law dan antek asing,� teriak para pendemo seperti dituturkan Darto. Tidak seperti aksi buruh yang tampak sering dihambat meski sudah mengajukan surat pemberitahuan, aksi para pendemo kali ini tampak begitu lancar dan cepat meski mereka mereka tidak melayangkan pemberitahuan. setelah beberapa lama, mereka bergesar dan mengatakan akan melanjutkan unjuk rasa di Kementerian Hukum dan HAM menuntut pembubaran KASBI.

Berikut kronologi lengkap teror ke KASBI

Tak lama setelah aksi, anggota-anggota KASBI segera merapatkan barisan. Tidak hanya itu, solidaritas juga datang dari berbagai organisasi, termasuk dari Konfederasi Persatuan Buruh Indonesia dan SGBN.

Konfederasi KASBI melihat aksi yang tanpa surat pemberitahuan, mendadak, dan tampak intimidatif ini sebagai sebuah pesan teror. �Ini ada kaitannya dengan apa yang sedang dilakukan KASBI bersama Gerakan Buruh Bersama Rakyat untuk menolak omnibus law RUU Cilaka di mana kita tahu proses pembuatannya sangat misterius, dipaksakan, tidak demokratis dan kita dipaksakan untuk menerima RUU Cilaka,� kata Ketua Umum KASBI Nining Elitos pada Senin, 17 Februari 2020.

KASBI menjelaskan bahwa aksi penolakan bersama Gerakan Buruh Bersama Rakyat dan Fraksi Rakyat Indonesia itu dilatari rancangan undang-undang yang menyengsarakan rakyat. Pasalnya, beleid itu akan mempertinggi kerusakan lingkungan dan memiskinkan buruh. Berbagai perlindungan buruh di UU 13/2003 tentang Ketenagakerjaan bakal direvisi. Alhasil, kontrak dapat dilakukan tanpa batasan waktu dan jenis pekerjaan, upah minimum kabupaten/kota dihapus, upah akan diganti per jam, dan pengusaha tidak diwajibkan membayar cuti hamil, haid, dan menikah. Cuti besar juga akan dihapus dan parahnya tidak ada sanksi pidana bagi pengusaha pelanggar hukum. �Yang akan mendapat kerugian penderitaan dan kesengsaraan itu rakyat Indonesia. Bak buruh pemuda pelajar tani, lingkungan, masyarakat adat dan nelayan,� imbuh Nining.

Terkait aksi teror tersebut, KASBI menyatakan mengecam aksi tersebut. �Dalam ruang demokrasi seharusnya kebbeasan menyampaikan pendapat tentang persoalan rakyat kritik berbagai regulasi dan kebijakan seharusnya didengar, bukan kemudian membuat teror bagi rakyat yang tengah berjuang,� serunya.

KASBI juga mengaskan bahwa mereka tidak akan mencabut tuntutan melawan omnibus law RUU Cilaka. Alih-alih, teror tersebut malahan akan semakin membakar perlawanan rakyat. �Hentikanlah rezim melakukan cara-cara seperti ini, bukan membuat rakyat semakin lemah, tapi akan semakin menguatkan kekuatan konsolidasi rakyat,� tegasnya.

Tingkatkan Kewaspadaan dan Persatuan

Setelah kejadian itu, Konfederasi KASBI akan meningkatkan pengamanan. KASBI akan menugaskan barisan pelopor BARA KASBI untuk berjaga secara bergantian. Tidak hanya KASBI, organ-organ lain yang kritis terhadap omnibus law RUU Cilaka juga dinilai mesti meningkatkan pengamanan.

Selain mengecam aksi teror di sekretariat KASBI, Konfederasi Persatuan Buruh Indonesia (KPBI) juga memperingatkan bahwa aksi teror ini mungkin baru permulaan. Ketua Umum KPBI Ilhamsyah menyebutkan pola teror serupa pernah dilancarkan ketika pemerintah dan DPR getol menupayakan revisi UU KPK yang melemahkan pemberantasan korupsi. Ketika itu, bahkan gedung KPK sempat dilempari batu dan dirusak ketika banyak pegawainya bekerja. �Mereka tidak akan berhenti sampai tujuan mereka terpenuhi,� kata Ilhamsyah.

Selain itu, KPBI juga menyerukan agar berbagai gerakan perlu meningkatkan persatuan. Sebab, serangan terhadap gerakan-gerakan yang menolak omnibus law RUU Cilaka mungkin akan kembali terjadi. Gerakan rakyat juga perlu memperkuat konsolidasi agar perjuangan menolak omnibus law RUU Cilaka berhasil.

Sebelumnya, KASBI bersama GEBRAK dan Fraksi Rakyat Indonesia lantas menyuarakan penolakan terhadap RUU Cilaka. Pada 13 Januari 2020 GEBRAK melancarkan aksi ke DPR RI menolak rancangan undang-undang yang pembahasan draftnya berlangsung secara misteris itu.

KASBI bahkan menolak untuk masuk dalam Tim Koordinasi Pembahasan dan Konsultasi Publik Substansi Ketenagakerjaan RUU Cipta Kerja. Alasannya, ada itikad tidak baik ketika buruh tidak dilibatkan dari awal dan terkesan tampak sebagai pemberi stempel bagi usulan pemerintah. Selain KASBI, kelompok buruh yang menolak bergabung dalam tim tersebut adalah Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Indonesia.

On 17 February 2020, Konfederasi Kasbi, a labour workers organisation got intimidated in front of its office by unknown persons for drawing criticism towards a new bill in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Police in Indonesia have jailed three indigenous farmers for allegedly stealing oil palm fruit from a plantation company that is itself accused of stealing their land.

Police in East Kotawaringin district, in the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan, arrested Dilik Bin Asap and Hermanus Bin Bison from Penyang village on Feb. 17. They were accused of harvesting palm fruit on land claimed by the villagers but cultivated illegally by PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (HMBP), an affiliate of the BEST Group.

On March 7, police arrested prominent land rights activist James Watt in Jakarta, where he had gone to report the earlier arrests to the national human rights commission, known as Komnas HAM, and the witness protection program, or LPSK. They flew him back to Central Kalimantan and charged him with orchestrating the alleged theft by Dilik and Hermanus.

The case has sparked outrage among indigenous rights activists. In the wake of the arrests of Dilik and Hermanus, community members blocked the road leading to PT HMBP�s plantation. Police arrested 11 of them before releasing them shortly after.

The case is the latest in a litany list of land disputes between forest communities and corporate concession holders, with authorities almost invariably siding with the latter each time.

According to the Penyang villagers, PT HMBP has cleared forests and cultivated oil palms on land outside its concession, encroaching onto the community�s land. They have lodged complaints with multiple authorities, including the East Kotawaringin district government and council, and Komnas HAM.

In 2010, the district chief officially declared that PT HMBP was operating outside its concession and ordered it to cede the disputed land back to the community. The following year, the district council determined that the company had illegally planted on 1,800 hectares (4,450 acres), and echoed the district chief�s call to hand the land back to the villagers. Komnas HAM also called on the company to follow through.

But it wasn�t until October 2019 that PT HMBP acted. Even then, it said it would only relinquish control of a fraction of the disputed land � 117 ha, or 290 acres � either completely or partially, offering to manage it in collaboration with the villagers.

The recent arrests stem from this statement, according to Dimas Novian Hartono, the Central Kalimantan director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi): the community took the statement at face value, he said, and believed the land was theirs once again to harvest from. But PT HMBP saw it differently and filed criminal charges against Dilik and Hermanus.

The Central Kalimantan police have denied the arrests are directly linked to the land dispute, characterizing the charges as purely criminal.

But activists call it a blatant attempt by the company to quash opposition to its land grab, citing among other irregularities the late-night arrest of James Watt as he attempted to report the matter to higher authorities in Jakarta. James was previously featured by Mongabay and The Gecko Project in a joint investigative report into the palm oil licensing practices of Darwan Ali, the former head of Central Kalimantan�s Seruyan district.

Arif Nur Fikri, the head of advocacy at the independent NGO Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said the police should have looked at PT HMBP�s complaints of theft in the wider context of the land dispute.

�This agrarian conflict has received recommendations [in support of the community] from Komnas HAM, the district council, the district chief, and the district land agency,� Arif said.

Arie Rompas, from Greenpeace Indonesia, said the case was another classic example of how corporations wielded the police to crack down on critics.

�The problem is that the police aren�t carrying out their function of upholding justice,� he said. �They worked in response to a complaint filed by the company, which has clearly engaged in illegal activities� by planting outside its concession.

Walhi�s Dimas said his office would continue pressing for the release of and dropping of criminal charges against James, Dilik and Hermanus. A truce with the company is not an option, he added.

�Making peace is the same as acknowledging the presence of the company, which has robbed the people of their land,� Dimas told Mongabay.

On 17 Febrary 2020, Dilik Bin Asap and Hermanus Bin Bison, Indigenous peoples rights defender, were arrested by the police on charges lodged by PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada palm oil company in Penyang Village, Indonesia.

Security PT Nusa Wana Raya (NWR) diduga melakukan intimidasi dan kekerasan terhdap wartawan di lahan plasma warga di Desa Gondai, Kecamayan Langgam, Pelalawan, Riau. Akibatnya wartawan MNC Media Indra Yoserizal terluka akibat ditendang dan dipukul securiti.

"Saya ditendang, dipukul hingga diseret," kata Indra Yoserizal, reporter MNC Media kepada pers di lokasi kejadian, Rabu (5/2/2020).

Tak hanya dianiaya, perangkat kerja berupa kamera milik Indra juga dirampas dan sampai sekarang belum dikembalikan oleh security NWR.

Atas peristiwa itu Indra berniat melaporkan insiden itu ke kepolisian dan meminta perlindungan ke Dewan Pers.

"Saya berniat melaporkan kejadian ini ke Polres Pelalawan atau Polda," katanya.

Kejadian berawal saat Indra datang bersama rekan media lainnya pada pukul 10.00 WIB ke lokasi eksekusi lahan di Gondai.

Saat itu situasi sedang memanas, antara warga dengan security perusahaan NWR yang saling lempar batu hingga kemudian terjadi pengejaran oleh ratusan security NWR terhadap warga.

"Ketika itu saya sedang mendokumentasikan peristiwa, berlindung di areal perkebunan. Sudah saya jelaskan saya wartawan, tapi tetap dipukul dan kamera dirampas, dirusak juga," kata Indra.

Indra menjelaskan, saat itu dia sedang merekam aksi pemukulan terhadap sejumlah warga yang berlarian.

Indra menjelaskan, setelah sempat dianiaya, pihaknya juga sempat disekap oleh segerombolan security hingga diintervensi.

Dikatakannya, sampai sekarang kameranya belum dikembalikan, padahal ada rekaman peristiwa pada saat itu.

Humas Polres Pelalawan Iptu Edy yang ditemui di lokasi mengakui prihatin atas insiden yang menyebabkan luka jurnalis MNC Media.

"Kami sangat menyayangkan kejadian inj, dan saya berharap teman-teman pers lebih hati-hati dalam menjalankan tugasnya," kata dia.

Ketika peristiwa bentrok berlangsung, aparat kepolisian belum berada di lokasi kejadian.

Ratusan personel polisi baru tiba di lokasi setelah insiden bentrok mereda, namun hingga siang pukul 11.45 WIB situasi di Gondai masih mencekam.

Ratusan masyarakat terus berdatangan dengan membawa benda tumpul dan benda tajam.

"Kami tidak takut mati untuk mempertahankan kebun yang menjadi matapencaharian kami," kata Siti, seorang ibu pemilik kebun plasma di Desa Gondai.

On 5 February 2020, Indra Yoserizal, media worker, was beaten and had his camera stolen by the security personnel of PT Nusa Wana Raya palm oil Company, while reporting the alleged eviction perpetrated against residents in Gondai Village, Indonesia.

Aksi unjuk rasa mewarnai kunjungan kerja Presiden Joko Widodo (Jokowi) di Bengkulu, Rabu (05/02/2020). Massa aksi Aliansi Mahasiswa Berdaulat yang turun ke jalan itu bahkan sempat terlibat kericuhan dengan aparat.

Kericuhan itu dipicu silang pendapat antara petugas keamanan dengan mahasiswa terkait legalitas unjuk rasa. Versi polisi aksi itu belum didahului dengan surat pemberitahuan. Sementara mahasiswa menyatakan mereka sudah melayangkan surat itu pada tanggal 3 Februari 2020.

Puncaknya terjadi setelah proses negosiasi buntu. Aparat bergerak guna membubarkan massa. Sedang mahasiswa melawan dengan bertahan.

Kericuhan pun pecah. Aksi di seberang SMPN 3 Kota Bengkulu yang semula kondusif itu seketika berubah refresif.

Atas insiden itu, M Fauzan Hanif, Presiden Mahasiswa UNIB mengaku sangat kecewa. Menurut dia, apa yang dilakukan mahasiswa adalah bentuk cinta dan kepedulian menyikapi berbagai persoalan bangsa saat ini.

�Kami ingin menyampaikan aspirasi secara langsung karena banyaknya permasalahan yang terjadi saat ini di negara kita tercinta kepada presiden. Namun yang terjadi ada upaya pembatasan dan tindakan-tindakan yang tidak selayaknya kami dapatkan oleh pihak aparat. Perjuangan ini belum usai!� tegas Fauzan.

Senada, Wakil Presiden Mahasiswa UMB, Puji Hendri Julita Sari, mengaku sanggat menyanyangkan tindakkan referensif aparat yang membatasi dan menghalangi aksi mahasiswa yang ingin menyampaikan aspirasi rakyat.

�Pada hari ini sejatinnya suara mahasiswa dibungkam. Baru beberapa menit massa aksi menyampaikan aspirasi di mimbar bebas justru dibubarkan secara paksa dan referensif oleh pihak keamanan. Kami datang dengan argumentasi, tidak selayaknya dijawab dengan kekerasan dan tindakan referensif aparat,� protes Puji.

Kericuhan mahasiswa versus aparat itu sendiri sempat diwarnai penangkapan empat aktivis mahasiswa. Mereka sempat ditahan sebelum dilepaskan dan kembali bersama dengan rekan-rekannya.

Empat aktivis itu adalah Kelvin Aldo, Elekusman, Abdullah, dan Aditya Andala Pratama.

�Keadaan mereka sekarang alhamdulilah baik-baik saja, nggak ada yang ditahan sama polisi dan kami pergi sama-sama begitu juga pulang dengan sama-sama. Terimah kasih,� terang Wakil Presiden Mahasisa Unihaz, Lia, yang dikonfirmasi sahabatrakyat.com, Rabu malam.

Demo mahasiswa itu sendiri mengusung sembilan tuntutan kepada Presiden Jokowi, yakni:

1. Mendesak Presiden Joko Widodo mengeluarkan Perpu terhadap UU No.19 tahun 2019 tentang Komisi Pemberatasan tindak pidana Korupsi;
2. Mendesak Presiden Joko Widodo untuk menuntaskan permasalah korupsi.
3. Mendesak presiden Joko Widodo untuk membatalkan kenaikan iuran BPJS, sesuai dengan pasal 28 H ayat 1 UUD Negara Republik Indonesia tahun 1945;
4. Menuntut Presiden Joko Widodo selaku pemegang kekuasaan pemerintahan untuk menutup PLTU batu bara Teluk Sepang;
5. Mendesak Presiden Joko Widodo untuk segera memangkas hutang luar negeri dan membuka akses keterbukaan informasi terkait hutang luar negeri Indonesia;
6. Mendesak Pemerintah segera menuntaskan kasus HAM dan menjamin kebebasan berpendapat bagi setiap warga negara di muka umum;
7. Mendesak Presiden untuk memastikan anggaran pendidikan terealisasikan di tiap daerah dan meminta Jokowi untuk turut andil dalam perbaikan pendidikan yang merata di Bengkulu.
8. Mendesak Presiden Joko Widodo untuk memastikan karhutla tidak terjadi kembali, tindak tegas terhadap oknum pembakaran hutan baik pribadi maupun korporasi.
9. Mendesak Presiden Joko Widodo mengentaskan permasalahan kemiskinan dan meningkatkan kesejahteraan di Indonesia, terkhusus provinsi Bengkulu.
10. Mendesak Presiden Joko Widodo mengoptimalkan tim audit untuk menuntaskan BUMN bermasalah.

On 5 February 2020, four students from the youth organisation "Aliansi Mahasiswa Bengkulu Berdaulat" were arrested by the police for joining a peaceful protest during the visit of President Widodo in Bengkulu City, Indonesia.

Komite Keselamatan Jurnalis mengecam pemidanaan terhadap jurnalis berita.news Muhammad Asrul dengan pasal ujaran kebencian Pasal 28 ayat 2 UU ITE jo. Pasal 156 KUHP dan pasal perbuatan menimbulkan keonaran Pasal 14 dan 15 UU Nomer 1 Tahun 1946. Kasus ini seharusnya diselesaikan dengan mekanisme sengketa pers sesuai dengan Nota Kesepahaman Dewan Pers dan Kapolri dan UU Pers.

"Pemidanaan ini menjadi preseden buruk bagi kebebasan pers di Indonesia. Sengketa pers sudah selayaknya diselesaikan dengan mekanisme UU Pers. Karena itu, Komite Keselamatan Jurnalis mendesak polisi segera membebaskan Asrul atas kasus ini. Kapolri juga perlu mengevaluasi anggota polisi yang menangani kasus ini karena tidak bisa membedakan kasus sengketa pers dengan kasus lainnya," ujar Koordinator Komite Keselamatan Jurnalis Sasmito Madrim.

"Dan jika ada kasus-kasus yang tidak berkaitan dengan UU Pers, silakan saja diproses dengan menggunakan UU lain. Bukan sebaliknya mengkriminalisasi karya jurnalistiknya."

Pada 14 Juni 2019, Muhammad Asrul diadukan ke polisi dengan aduan pencemaran nama baik oleh Farid Karim Judas karena tiga berita dugaan korupsi yang dituliskannya di media online berita.news pada 10, 24, dan 25 Mei 2019. Tiga tulisan yang dipermasalahkan itu berjudul �Putra Mahkota Palopo Diduga �Dalang� Korupsi PLTMH dan Keripik Zaro Rp11 M�, tertanggal 10 Mei 2019, �Aroma Korupsi Revitalisasi Lapangan Pancasila Palopo Diduga Seret Farid Judas� tertanggal 24 Mei 2019, dan �Jilid II Korupsi jalan Lingkar Barat Rp5 M, Sinyal Penyidik Untuk Farid Judas?� tertanggal 25 Mei 2019.

Sekitar bulan Juli 2019, Asrul mendapat surat panggilan dari penyidik dan Asrul kemudian memberikan klarifikasi bahwa kasus yang menjeratnya adalah kasus pers yang seharusnya melalui mekanisme sengketa pers sesuai dengan Pasal 1, 5, 11, dan 15 UU No 40 Tahun 1999 tentang Pers. Lalu tidak ada tindak lanjut.

Hak Jawab Sudah Dberikan, Tetap Dipolisikan

Pada 4 November 2019, Kuasa Hukum Farid Kasim Judas mengirimkan surat somasi berupa permintaan hak jawab dan permintaan maaf oleh media Berita News terkait berita yang memuat tentang dirinya. Hak jawab tersebut dimuat di portal Berita News pada 6 November 2019.

Namun, pemuatan Hak Jawab yang sebenarnya merupakan bagian dari penyelesaian sengketa pers sebagaimana diatur oleh UU Pers, ternyata dianggap tidak cukup.

Pada 17 Desember 2019, Farid Kasim Judas membuat aduan yang tercatat dalam Laporan Polisi Nomor: LPB / 465/ XII / 2019 / SPKT. Polisi pun segera menindaklanjuti laporan itu dengan penangkapan, sesuatu yang amat berlebihan.

Pada 29 Januari 2020 pukul 13.05 WITA Muhammad Asrul dijemput paksa dari rumahnya oleh kepolisian. Selanjutnya ia dibawa ke Polda Sulawesi Selatan untuk dimintai keterangan tanpa didampingi oleh penasihat hukum. Muhammad Asrul mulai diperiksa dan menjalani BAP oleh penyidik sejak pukul 15.30 WITA sampai 20.30 WITA.

Namun, begitu selesai menjalani BAP, Muhammad Asrul tidak diperbolehkan pulang. Ia langsung ditahan di Rutan Mapolda Sulsel tanpa pemberitahuan kepada pihak keluarga ataupun pihak Berita News sejak 30 Januari 2020. Barulah pada 31 Januari 2020 keluar Surat Pemberitahuan Penahanan Nomor B/70/I/2020/Ditreskrimsus untuk Muhammad Asrul yang ditujukan kepada keluarga.

"Kasus ini menambah daftar panjang kasus kekerasan terhadap jurnalis di Indonesia. Padahal kita tahu kemerdekaan pers merupakan syarat mutlat untuk mendorong pemerintahan yang bersih, bebas dari korupsi. Tapi bagaimana ini bisa tercapai jika produk-produk jurnalisme dikriminalisasi," tambah Sasmito.

Sasmito juga mengatakan hal ini akan membuat indeks kemerdekaan pers Indonesia semakin terpuruk. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) menempatkan Indonesia di peringkat, di bawah Timor Leste dan Malaysia.

Berdasarkan kronologi dan kondisi tersebut, Komite Keselamatan Jurnalis menilai kasus ini merupakan sengketa pers yang seharusnya mengikuti mekanisme penyelesaian sesuai Nota Kesepahaman Dewan Pers dan Kapolri. Kriminalisasi terhadap Asrul dengan menggunakan UU ITE merupakan preseden buruk dan memperpanjang daftar penyalahgunaan UU ITE untuk menjerat jurnalis dalam karya-karyanya sekaligus mengancam sikap kritis warga terhadap dugaan kasus korupsi.

Atas perkara tersebut, KKJ menyatakan hal sebagai berikut:

1. Menuntut agar Polda Sulsel segera membebaskan Muhammad Asrul dan menghentikan perkara ini.
2. Mendesak agar perkara ini dibawa ke Dewan Pers dan menyelesaikannya dengan mekanisme sengketa pers, bukan dengan menggunakan pasal-pasal karet dalam UU ITE.
3. Meminta agar pemerintah segera merevisi pasal karet UU ITE yang rawan digunakan untuk mengkriminalisasi jurnalis, terutama media daring.
4. Menyarankan agar semua pihak menghentikan penggunaan pasal-pasal karet dalam UU ITE untuk menjerat kebebasan berekspresi, termasuk kebebasan pers, melalui media daring dan media sosial.

On 29 January 2020, Muhammad Arsul, media worker, was questioned and arrested by the police in response of local corruption cases he reported in Makassar, Indonesia.

Pelajar dan mahasiswa eksodus asal kabupaten Timika, Papua, mengecam dan mengutuk keras tindakan Kepolisian Resort (Polres) kabupaten Mimika membubar paksa aksi demo damai berujung penangkapan yang dilakukan, Jumat (24/1/2020) kemarin, di halaman kantor Bupati Mimika.

Hal tersebut disampaikan ketua posko umum eksodus Papua, Eko Philipus Kogoya, karena dinilainya aparat kepolisian sengaja berupaya mau menggiring aksi damai ke tindakan kriminal.

�Aksi kawa-kawan adalah aksi damai. Maka tindakan aparat, kami kutuk. Heran belum sampai pada pembacaan sikap, masa aksi dibubarkan secara paksa tanpa ada ruang berekspresi sedikitpun dikasih oleh kepolisian Mimika,� ujar Eko, melalui pers release yang diterima suarapapua.com, Jumat.

On 24 January 2020, Johni Jangkup, Silfester, and Isack Jamawe , students, were arrested and beaten by the police for joining a peaceful demonstration against a racist incident in Mimika, Indonesia.

MNC group journalist Indra Yoserizal was attacked by security officers from a forestry company while covering a clash between the company and residents in Pelalawan, Riau province on the island of Sumatra on February 4. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia call on authorities for direct investigation of the company to ensure the perpetrators are identified and brought to justice.

Yoserizal and several other journalists were covering the land conflict between the forestry company and residents at Gondai village, Pelalawan - a regency of Riau. The origins of the dispute stemmed from Nusa Wana Raya’s recent Supreme Court victory against another companyPeputra Supra Jaya, which it accused of operating an illegal palm plantation on the land.

Many residents involved in the conflict worked as plasma farmers and collaborated with Peputra Supra Jaya. Plasma smallholders are palm oil farmers who partner with a local company providing technical support as part of an overall agreement to sell their produce to that company. The Pelalawan farmers continue to claim Nusa Wana Raya took their land.

In the clash, around 100 Nusa Wana Raya security officers and residents confronted one another, with each side hurling stones. Yoserizal filmed security officers throwing stones after which several security officers grabbed and kicked the journalist. Security officers continued the attack even after Yoserizal had identified himself as a television journalist. They also detained Yoserizal and seized his equipment, which is yet to be returned. Yoserizal suffered bruising to his body and hands. He reported the case to the Pekanbaru Regional Office with the report letter No. STPL/69/II/ 2020/SPKT/RIAU. The company subsequently issued an apology, but the journalist is pursuing legal action for the attack.

In a joint statement with the Indonesian Journalists Safety Committee, AJI urged police to investigate the matter and punish all perpetrators. Under Indonesia’s Press Law, perpetrators who deliberately obstruct journalists’ work can be jailed up to two years or fined up to 500 million rupiahs (USD 36,000).

AJI said: “We also demanded the company or Nusa Wana Raya to impose sanctions to those offenders . . . We call all the parties in the country to respect journalists and protect them while they are on duty.”

On 4 February 2020, Indra Yoserizal, media worker, was beaten by the security personnel of a forestry company while filming the clash between the company security personnel and residents in Pelalawan, Indonesia.

Mohammad Sadli Saleh, the chief editor of Liputanpersada.com was arrested for publishing an article covering alleged corruption connected to road construction in Central Buton district, South East Sulawesi. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia condemn the arrest and urge authorities to release Sadli from prison.

Sadli published the article on July 10, 2019 questioning the budget of the road construction project but was not arrested until five months later on December 17, 2019. Sadli’s article was originally published on Liputanpersada.comand widely circulated on various Facebook and WhatsApp groups; the website was later taken down.

The head of Central Buton district reported Sadli to the police on July 27, 2019, accusing him of violating the Electronic and Information and Transactions (ITE) Law. The police charges alleged that Sadli’s article was defamatory and spread information that might insight hatred.

Police put Sadli under city arrest on December 11, 2019 and

seized his notebook for evidence. On December 17, 2019, the prosecutor’s office took over the case and Sadli was arrested. Sadli’s trial began on January 20, 2020. He remains incarcerated and faces up to six years in prison if convicted.

The case has had far reaching impacts beyond Saldi, including the termination of his wife’s employment. Sadli’s wife, Siti Marfuah who worked for the Local House of Representative of Regency Central Buton (DPRD) since 2015 was asked by her employer to persuade her husband to stop covering the corruption related to the road construction. Marfuah was later fired.

AJI noted the libel case against Sadli violates the Press Law. According to AJI, Article 15 of the Press Law says it is the role of the Press Council to solve complaints made by the public on the press’ reportage, not the government. Further, the police have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Press Council stating if the police receive disputes between journalists and the public, the police must follow the conflict resolution scheme in the Press Law.

“We demand the authorities follow the Press Law and the MoU and urge the revision of the ITE Law to drop the elastic clauses which can be used to criminalized journalists. We ask the head of the district of Central Buton to respect press freedom and journalists’ safety,” AJI added.

The IFJ said: “The Press Council mechanisms were enacted to resolve disputes between the media and the public. Escalating the case to a criminal matter undermines Sadli’s ability to work as a journalist and corrodes press freedom in Indonesia. The IFJ condemns the arrest and urges the government to release Sadli from custody.”

On 11 December 2019, Mohammad Sadli Saleh, media worker, was put under house arrest by the police and then arrested upon order of the local prosecutor for having raised a case of corruption in Central Buton, Indonesia. The trial began on 20 January 2020.

West Sumatra Police reportedly arrested an activist from Inter-Community Studies Center (Pusaka) Sudarto for allegedly spreading hate speech through social media regarding Christmas celebration in Dharmasraya Regency.

“He is arrested at his house,” West Sumatra Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Stefanus Satake Bayu Setianto verified in Padang, Tuesday, January 7. He said Sudarto was secured at 1:30 p.m. at his house located on Jalan Veteran, Purus.

Stefanus explained that Sudarto deliberately distributed information that triggered individual or group hostility based on ethnicity, religion, and race (SARA) and hoax news via Facebook.

Sudarto, he added, was still undergoing examination at the police headquarters.

Sudarto faced charges of Article 45 (A)2 in conjunction with Article 28 of Law No. 19 of 2016 on the amendment of Law No. 11 of 2008 on Electronic Information and Transaction or ITE Law and Article 14 (1) and (2) of the 1946 Criminal Code.

“He has been named a suspect and will undergo the further process,” Stefanus said.

Previously, the head of a youth group Pemuda Jorong Kampung Baru of Nagari Sikabau, Harry Permana, filed a police report on December 29 against Sudarto for allegedly spreading false information in light of the ban on Christmas celebration in the region. Sudarto made the post on December 14-15.

Harry clarified that Nagari Sikabau had never restricted the Christmas celebration but rather prohibited people from outside the region to hold or celebrate it in the area.

Human rights communities condemned the arrest of Sudarto. Deputy chief of Setara Institute Bonar Tigor Naipospos said the case was a new strategy from intolerant groups to silence critical people on social media. "Unfortunately, the law enforcers tend to favor the majority group," Bonar said.

On 7 January 2020, Sudarto, FoRB activist, was arrested by the police and charged for allegedly spreading hate speech online in Padang, Indinesia.