Indonesia:
Criminalization of social leader for the benefit of oil palm corporation
As exposed
in previous WRM Bulletin issues, criminalization is part of a strategy
aimed at silencing any protest generally against the extractive
activities of transnational corporations (see WRM Bulletin Nº 125).
It is happening all over Southern countries. And it is happening
right now in Indonesia, where it has victimized another fighter
of social resistance to land-grabbing by palm oil-companies in the
country.
The powerful
agribusiness transnational group PT Sinar Mas, apart from wide investments
including chemicals, finance, banking, hotels, telecommunications,
pig-breeding, shares the world's largest holdings of oil palm lands
and is Indonesia’s largest palm oil company.
Operations
of its subsidiary PR Kresna Duta Agroindo (KDA) in Jambi province,
on the east coast of central Sumatra, have raised conflict among
villagers of Karang Mendapo. The company aggressively expanded its
oil palm plantations grabbing forest and rubber plantations of Karang
Mendapo farmers. Some 600 hectares were illegally cut down to integrate
the land to a larger oil palm plantation, for which KDA distributed
a monthly fee of 58.000 rp (3,50 €) to each registered farmer without
clearly stating the purpose of such payment.
According
to Watch Indonesia! (1) “in August 2008, the villagers seized the
land - that in fact is their own - and harvested the yields of the
oil palms there. Ever since, they have been subject to intimidation
and maltreatment by unknown persons presumably acting on behalf
of KDA. These incidents were reported to the police but to no avail.”
“As part of
the protest, the citizens of Karang Mendapo decided to return the
fee they had received from KDA in August. However, KDA refused to
take back this money”. The villagers decided then to entrust the
money on resistance leader Muhammad Rusdi -who is also the village’s
mayor- until KDA would receive it.
Rusdi was
arrested on 28 January 2009 and still remains in detention at the
district police facilities. He was interrogated and there are reports
that he was maltreated. It seems that Rusdi was arrested under the
alleged charge of misappropriation of the
money entrusted to him by his fellow villagers.
The communiqué
of Watch Indonesia! says that “local activists and the population
of Karang Mendapo fear that Rusdi is being framed by local law-enforcement
authorities acting on behalf of KDA. Local activists fear that Rusdi
is being criminalized to suppress the protest of victims of abusive
land-grabbing practices that palm oil-companies apply Indonesia-wide.”
With 7.1 million
hectares planted with oil palm, Indonesia is positioned as the world's
leading palm oil producer. The urge to plant oil palm has not ceased.
On the contrary, on 18 February this year, Indonesia acknowledged
it had quietly lifted a ban established since December 2007 on the
use of peat land for palm oil plantations (2). This implies that
around 2 million hectares of peat land eligible for palm oil plantation
will be cleared and drained, thus releasing millions of tonnes of
CO2 into the atmosphere that will add to global warming.
Mounting criminalization,
deforestation, destruction, land-grabbing, global warming: the fruit
of oil palm tastes bitter than ever.
A campaign has been organized to demand Rusdi‘s
immediate release and a thorough investigation of how he came to
be detained at all. You are invited to take action and send letters
–a suggested sample is available- to Indonesian authorities through
Watch Indonesia!’s website at
http://www.watchindonesia.org/Index-engl.htm, or Salva la Selva
campaign at
http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/protestaktion.php?id=359
(1) “Urgent
Appeal: Resistance against Palm Oil - Unlawful Arrest of farmers’
resistance leader in Jambi, Indonesia”, Watch Indonesia!, Berlin,
5 February 2009,
(2) “Indonesia
reopens peatland to palm oil plantation”, Ian MacKinnon, The Guardian,
18 February 2009,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/18/indonesia-peat-palm-oil
