Indonesia: Paper Industry Threatens Human Rights
Donors Urged to Act at Bali Conference
Human Rights Watch - Asia Division

Indonesian police and company security forces are responsible for persistent human rights abuses against indigenous communities involved in the massive pulp and paper industry in Sumatra, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Abuses include land seizures without compensation and brutal attacks on local demonstrators.

Human Rights Watch said Indonesia's donors should call for action to end abuses and urgently needed forestry reforms at a key upcoming donor meeting. The Consultative Group on Indonesia (GGI), a major donor meeting convened by the World Bank, is scheduled for January 21-22, 2003, in Bali, Indonesia.

Without Remedy: Human Rights Abuse and Indonesia's Pulp and Paper Industry, a 90-page report, extensively documents the underlying links between disregard for human rights and unsound forestry practices.

"Donors should urge President Megawati and her government to take immediate steps to end these abuses," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division. "They should also call for longer term measures to curb the problems of impunity and land confiscation underlying conflicts in the paper industry."

Indonesia's pulp and paper industry has rapidly expanded since the late 1980s to become one of the world's top ten producers. But the industry has accumulated debts of more than U.S.$20 billion, and expanding demand consumes wide swathes of Sumatra's lowland tropical forests. This land is claimed by indigenous communities, who depend on them for rice farming and rubber tapping. The loss of access to forests, together with companies' hiring from outside the province, has been devastating to local livelihoods, leading to violent conflicts.

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is Indonesia's leading paper producer, and owner of one of the largest stand-alone pulp mills in the world, the Indah Kiat mill in Riau, Sumatra. The mill's primary fiber supplier, Arara Abadi, established its pulpwood plantation in the 1980s-90s, under then President Soeharto. Arara Abadi, backed by state security forces, routinely seized land for the plantations from indigenous communities without due process and with little or no compensation.

Since the fall of Soeharto in May 1998, local residents have attempted to press their claims, but have met with unresponsive law enforcement. With no remedy for their grievances, communities have increasingly turned to vigilantism. Arara Abadi has responded with violence and arrests.

In its new report, Human Rights Watch details three cases in 2001 in which local villagers in Mandiangin, Betung, and Angkasa/ Belam Merah, frustrated by unresolved disputes with Arara Abadi, set up blockades or began logging plantation trees. Hundreds of club-wielding company militia attacked residents, seriously injuring nine and detaining sixty-three. Indonesian police, who trained the civilian militias and also were present during the attacks, were complicit in all three cases. Incidents of ongoing violence against villagers refusing to give up their land to APP suppliers continued to be reported in Riau last year.

Out of hundreds of assailants, Human Rights Watch is aware of only two who were brought to trial, and those two, convicted of assault and battery, were released after thirty days' time served. Human Rights Watch does not condone illegal actions by protesting villagers, and recognizes the company's need to protect personnel and property. But the use of excessive force by company-funded militia cannot be justified, and impunity for those responsible for the beatings is directly fuelling the cycle of vigilante justice. Further abuses are likely to continue under current conditions of impunity, financial pressure, and lack of internal corporate guidelines for security, Human Rights Watch warned.

"The acquiescence of state security forces and, sometimes, their direct assistance in the company militia attacks has meant that villagers have nowhere to go for help," said Jendrzejczyk. "The lack of rule of law and spiraling rural violence threatens not only the well-being of rural communities, but also foreign investment and national economic growth."

The majority of police and military spending (70 percent) comes from off-budget business ventures, many of which are in the forestry sector. These business ties set up an economic conflict of interest in law enforcement. In addition, Arara Abadi's security personnel have no guidelines for the use of force and are not held accountable for violations of the rights of local people.

Human Rights Watch urged the donors, at their upcoming Bali meeting, to call for a complete and transparent audit of all military and police businesses, and firm steps by the Indonesian government to address tenure disputes on state forest land, fulfilling commitments Jakarta has made to the International Monetary Fund and to previous CGI forums. For example, the Indonesian government should appoint an independent land claims board or ombudsman to deal with compensation disputes over seized forestry land.

Donors should also urge immediate action to investigate and prosecute those involved in incidents of violence in the pulp and paper industry, to clarify guidelines for the police in company operations, and improve civilian oversight of the police.

Human Rights Watch also recommended that huge pulp and paper companies such as APP establish and effectively enforce performance standards for both private and state security personnel, using the Voluntary Guidelines on Security and Human Rights developed by the U.S. State Department and the British government as a foundation.

The report "Without Remedy: Human Rights Abuse and Indonesia's Pulp and Paper Industry" by Human Rights Watch - Asia Division, January 2003 is available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/indon0103