Stop Sudah English-revised-March2012 - International Center for ...

Until now, MamaYosepha Alomang still struggles to defend the human rights of the people although she
has been repeatedly detained. In the 1990s, Mama Yosepha arrested for protesting the development of an
airport, employee housing, and a Sheraton Hotel by P.T. Freeport that took people's land in the vicinity of
Timika.
Keerom District, 1995–96:
Takeover of Communal Land for Oil Palm Plantations
Tanjung Morawa II Limited Liability Archipelago Plantation Company (PTPN) used the People’s Core
Plantation (PIR) system to manage the first oil palm plantations in Arso, Keerom District in 1982–83. 37 At
the opening of the first plantation, the Governor of Papua promised the people they would get permanent
housing, cars, and paved roads.
The people were fooled by the promises, so that they gave 500 hectares of their customary land. But now, it's
[become] 5000 hectares. The chief of the eight tribes was held at gunpoint to sign a letter handing over the Arso
forest. While aiming a gun at him the soldier said: “You have to sign for the palm oil . . . tomorrow you will be rich,
not poor anymore.” 38
Since the arrival of the plantation company, local women most felt the impact on traditional sources of
food, especially because of the conversion of their sago palm land to oil palm plantations, as seen in a
woman’s following narrative:
Before the plantations entered, we had vegetables; the dogs caught mice for us to eat. We also looked for fish in Tami
Stream. There were lots of sago palms on the land that is now planted with oil palms. When they worked on the
plantations, the women usually cleared the locations that were to be planted with the oil palms . . . while working,
their hearts were sad because they saw that the sago trees had been felled. I felt sad . . .I cried . . . 39
Another woman added:
. . . we also lost our staple foods, like sago that was already difficult to get . . . Now, if you want to go to the forest
[to search for sago] you must walk by foot a long way [kilometers] into the forest . . . now the forest is ruined. 40
The lack of adequate information regarding management of oil palms coupled with increasingly deplenished
production, caused many people to realize the difficulty of managing oil palm plantations, and so they
began to lease their land to transmigrants using a harvest-sharing system. The process of impoverishment in
the community was visible. And in the midst of hardship in the family economy, women often experienced
violence from their husbands, as told by a woman resident of Keerom:
The people never got any knowledge about how to manage the oil palms. So, they sought help from newcomers
[transmigrants] to harvest and sell it. So they divided the harvest . . . Beginning in 2007, the plantations were no
longer producing . . . revenues declined . . . sago palms tree planted by tribes disappeared . . . there were no longer
sources of food, while income from the oil palms was insufficient . . . Since then, my husband likes to get violence with
37 ,The PIR system used advanced technology and often employed transmigrants to develop large plantations. According to a
presidential decree, this system was intended as a “core” (inti) to help assist and support crop farmers in the surrounding region
in an integrated and mutually beneficial system. Plantation crops covered by the scheme included oil palm, rubber, sugar cane,
and other crops as determined by the Minister of Agriculture. See Presidential Instruction 1, 1986,
http://naker.tarakankota.go.id/produkhukum/inpres01-1986.
38 KER02 narrative.
39 KER01 narrative.
40 KER03 narrative.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! 24