On Friday, the 22nd of March, Sorbatua Siallagan, the head of the Dolok Parmonangan indigenous community in North Sumatra, was approached by ten men in plain clothes, forced into a black car and taken away, while in the village to buy some fertilizer for his community. The men turned out to be police agents, who took him to the police headquarters in Medan City, 159 km away from his village.
In November 2019, EPN, together with a coalition of NGOs, published an in-depth report mapping social conflicts in Indonesia. The report identified cases and areas of land grabbing by companies related to APRIL and its ultimate parent company Royal Golden Eagle (RGE), and detailed social conflicts around the plantations managed by PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL). Five years later, despite APRIL’s and RGE’s claims, we have seen almost no relevant progress in resolving the community conflicts identified in the report. Even worse, indigenous leaders continue to be arrested for protecting their ancestral land.
In this most recent case of criminalisation, the arrest warrant accuses Sobatua of carrying out illegal activities (farming in his customary land) in the forest area of a pulpwood concession controlled by PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL). TPL is a sister company linked to APRIL, and is controlled by the same owner, tycoon Sukanto Tanoto. The indigenous community of Dolok Parmonangan have been struggling for years to regain its ancestral land, of which around 200 hectares has been occupied by TPL.
“That is called kidnapping. A traditional leader was forcibly taken by the police without any letter and until now they don’t know where he is,” said Jhontoni Tarihoran, leader of the indigenous organization AMAN Tano Batak, during a public protest. “We suspect that this arrest was the result of an order, because so far Sorbatua Siallagan has been quite strong against the company Toba Pulp Lestari.”
AMAN Tano Batak is urging the release of Sorbatua Siallagan, the end of of the criminalisation and intimidation of Indigenous Peoples, and also the immediate revocation of TPL’s concession license by the government.
This is not the first episode of criminalization of indigenous activism toward the Dolok Parmonangan Community by the police. In 2020, Sorbatua Siallagan and another member of the Dolok Parmonangan Community, Sudung Siallagan, were similarly accused of occupying land inside the TPL concession. In fact, he was carrying out farming activities on his ancestral land.
According to the official Customary Area Registration Agency (BRWA), the Dolok Pamonangan traditional territory extends over 851.42 hectares. According to the community, 235.71 of them have been taken by TPL concessions. EPN expresses its solidarity with the Dolok Parmonangan indigenous community and underscores AMAN Tano Batak’s demand to release Sorbatua Siallagan. Indigenous leaders should not be arrested for protecting their ancestral lands. Companies must immediately stop criminalizing indigenous communities and restore disputed lands.
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