JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian palm oil company suspended evictions of several hundred farmers from the northern Sumatra subdistrict of Aek Kuo following an eleventh-hour court reprieve.
On Feb. 20, a local court issued an eviction order authorizing PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART) to establish an oil palm plantation on 83.5 hectares (206 acres) of land in Aek Kuo.
However, farmers who have occupied the land for decades view the eviction as a violation of their human rights. Some of them traveled to the Jakarta office of Indonesia’s human rights commission, known as Komnas HAM, in a bid to avert eviction from their homes by the subsidiary of Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food, one of Indonesia’s largest palm oil companies.
SMART had planned to evict the residents on Feb. 28, but a local court has rescheduled the eviction for March 6 following an intervention by Komnas HAM head of mediation, Prabianto Mukti Wibowo.
“We came here to ask for help from Komnas HAM so that we’re safe,” Misno, a fruit and vegetable grower from Aek Kuo, told Mongabay Indonesia at the offices of Komnas HAM.
“We have only an area of 83.5 hectares on which to operate,” Misno added. “That’s what we need to survive.”
After Indonesia declared independence in 1945, many laborers took over land left vacant by departing European plantation companies. However, forcible displacement of these local communities is common in Indonesia today, owing to informal or overlapping claims to land against industry permit holders.
Data from the Consortium for Agrarian Reform, a Jakarta-based civil society group, show that 295 land conflicts were reported across Indonesia in 2024 alone.
However, the Aek Kuo community claims they possess official certificates of tenure for the land being targeted by SMART, including a Land Occupation Registration Certificate, issued by the prevailing government office in the 1950s.
This is “legal proof that government recognizes the existence of the community,” said Muhammad Syafiq, a researcher with the Agrarian Resource Center civil society group.
Reform to the post-independence bureaucracy has often produced clashes with outdated title deeds, a frequent root cause of land conflicts. Local people say the company previously sought to evict the community in 2012 and 2019.
Previous court rulings have upheld the plantation permit, known as an HGU, held by Sinar Mas at the expense of the community of farmers.
Judicial review in at least one case in the same province upheld community rights to land over a competing claim by the regional state plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara IV (PTPN IV).
“We continue to seek a peaceful way as a goodwill of the company to resolve this situation,” Sinar Mas spokesperson Stephan Sinisuka said.
This story was first published here in Indonesian on Feb. 28.
Banner image: Aek Kuo residents Misno and Suherman at the offices of Indonesia’s rights commission on Feb. 27. Image by Achmad Rizki Muazam/Mongabay Indonesia.
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