A leading human rights campaigner yesterday called on the government to protect farmers in land disputes at the launch of a book investigating the problem.

Nur Kholis, the external deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), one of several groups who contributed to the book Plantation Conflict: A Business and Human Rights Contest, said the government too often sided with businesses in such cases.

“Farmers who protect their lands from the expansion of plantation companies often face repressive action and are criminalized by government security forces like the police,” Kholis said at the book launch in Jakarta.

Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) Executive Director Indriaswati Dyah Saptaningrum said these conflicts happen because farmers – who have lived on their land for generations – rarely hold land titles, adding that the government needed to revise land rights legislation.

“Without this [review], land dispute cases will grow and human rights violations will increase,” she said.

Police Chief Commissioner Tavip Yulianto admitted violations had been committed by the police during land disputes but that it was possible for the victims to seek justice.

“The police’s role is to resolve conflicts and to make sure that these won’t harm security and social order. [However] if people see them open fire they can bring them to court,” he said.

ELSAM recorded 30 land conflicts from January to April this year in Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumatra, while the Asian Human Rights Commission reported that police opened fire at farmers who staged peaceful protest against palm company PT Mazuma Agro Indonesia in February.

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