The Leader of Malind District, Martinus Dwiharjo, failed to stop an event organised by PUSAKA (a Jakarta-based NGO which has long supported villagers affected by MIFEE plantations), after it was made clear that this activity was a training and workshop on how to create village regulations to empower Papuan indigenous peoples’ and protect their rights, which took place from 19th-21st September 2013. This was a follow-up activity to the Wendu meeting which had taken place in August 2013.
Previously, Martinus had threatened to forcibly break up the activity, with the pretext that no notice had been given and no permit obtained from the Malind District government. What’s more, an order had been received from the Merauke Regency Government, transmitted over the RRI radio and by telephone, that the district leader and officials from the village government could not participate in any activity unless they received a recommendation and permission from the Regency Leader (Bupati). This is what Martinus explained when PUSAKA met him in the Malind District Office at noon on Thursday, 19th September 2013.
Martinus also ordered Onggari’s acting village leader not to allow government facilities to be used for the event. The secretary of Kampung Onggari, Justinus Ndiken, said that the Malind District Head had phoned and paid a visit to him on the morning before the event started.
The head of the Kumbe police post, Haris Utama, who was present at the Malind District office that Thursday lunchtime, confirmed the plan to break up PUSAKA’s meeting, and even sent an intelligence officer from Kurik police station, Amandus Wombon, to supervise the meeting until the afternoon.
Several village officials from Malind and Animha districts said that they had received phonecalls or heard the news on the radio forbidding them to participate in the workshop. Some of them came and participated, others did not.
Yulianus Gebze, Kampung Kumbe’s customary leader, who participated in the meeting, also received a phonecall from the chief of Kurik Police station asking about the aims of Pusaka’s workshop. Yulianus Gebze explained that it was a training in how to create village regulations. It would introduce the concept to the Malind people and train village officials in methods of making village regulations that could be used to protect the Malind people’s rights. It was not a ‘political’ activity, as had been suggested.
Participants greatly regretted the position taken by the Malind District Leader in wanting to break up the meeting and forbid village officials to attend, because it seemed out of step with the facts. Even if it was considered that no notice had been given, that should not have been a problem, because a village government has autonomy at the village level. The district government prohibiting or limiting such activities only acts to diminish the village government’s own authority, the autonomy of which was outlined in the Papuan Special Autonomy law.
The situation in Merauke City is quite tense because of planned demonstrations and the presence of the Freedom Flotilla ship which brought Australian and exiled Papuan activists to the area. However the workshop participants and villagers knew nothing of that news.
Source: Pusaka http://pusaka.or.id/kepala-distrik-malind-urung-membubarkan-kegiatan-pusaka-di-kampung-onggari/
[note for clarification: In West Papua the kampung (village) government is the lowest level of government. The next level up is the district (in other parts of Indonesia it is called kecamatan, usually translated as sub-district). Above this is the Kabupaten or Recency (although outside Papua it is often translated as District. Malind (sometimes Marind) is the name of the main ethnic group in most of Merauke Regency, but is also the name of one of the districts, where Kampung Onggari is located.]
This entry was posted in Merauke News and tagged intimidation, Onggari, Pusaka, Rajawali,Village Regulations. Bookmark the permalink. Comments are closed, but you can leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
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https://awasmifee.potager.org/?p=557
6) Sugar Company Rajawali Felling Sacred Forests.
Sugar-cane plantation company Rajawali’s prescence in Kampung Domande is still controversial. Domande villagers have several times resorted to using customary law to block access and halt the company’s activties.
In late May 2013, the people of Domande wrote a letter detailing their protests and complaints about Rajawali’s operations on their land, namely that the company had made many promises which had not been met, the company had violated their agreement with the community because their operations went beyond the agreed area, and the people’s demand for 15 billion Rupiah compensation for the wood that has been felled. After that the company engaged in negotiations and promised that it would respond to the people’s demands, the customary blockade was lifted. However, the violations continue.
One of the Domande people’s complaints is the destruction of the sacred forest in the Ga’ul river area. The company has felled trees around a sacred space where ancestors of the Malind people are buried. Such sacred spaces should be protected, and an enclave of forest should be left intact around them, according to the recommendations stipulated by the government and local people.
“Acttually the company is not allowed to fell the sacred forest and should leave at least a 500 meter zone of protected forest around it, but what has happened is that the company has only left a few trees around the sacred burial site”, said Huburtus Kaize, a youth leader from Domande. The company had also cleared a sacred forest area in the Sanggayas area, for which they were fined by the local people.
Rajawali has been very actively clearing forest in the Domande area since 2012. There is already an earth road running for 15km from the edge of the village to the area where the company plans to build a factory and sugar-cane plantation. The company has also opened a trial plot of sugar-cane in the Ga’ul river area.
According to Hubertus Kaize, the company has tended not to heed the people’s concern to prohibit the use of important or sacred places and areas which are vital for local people’s livelihood – for example around Selisadih and the Duhibob and Mege swamps. Instead it has just carried on regardless destroying these areas for its plantation, roads and factory.
The people’s demands for compensation for the value of wood felled have also not been met. The government has also not given a clear permission for the company to fell the forest – actually it should have obtained a Timber Utilization Permit.
[More news about Rajawali from elsewhere in Papua: Four workers at Rajawali's oil palm plantation in Keerom, in the northern part of West Papua, have been fired after they protested about the increasing workload without an increase in pay. The four had been working for the company since 2010 without being given a contract. Read the full article in Indonesian from Mongabay Indonesia: http://www.mongabay.co.id/2013/09/25/derita-buruh-sawit-rajawali-group-di-papua-protes-beban-kerja-berbuah-pemecatan/]
This entry was posted in Merauke News and tagged Broken Promises, Burial Grounds,Domande, Keerom, PT Tandan Sawita Papua, Rajawali, Sacred Places, Tempat Keramat,Timber compensation, Working Conditions. Bookmark the permalink. Comments are closed, but you can leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
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https://awasmifee.potager.org/?p=553
7) Harvesting Swamp Fish in Domande
(Sept 2013) At the moment it is dry season across the whole Merauke area, there has been no rain for over a month and the sun beats down intensely in the daytime. On the other hand, the nights are cool. Most small streams in the forest are dry. The swamps have become no more than puddles and water levels have dropped so much in deep natural ponds that they only come up to the knees of adults.
Every day, the Malind people go to the forested swamplands to search for fish and hunt wild animals. In Domande village, throughout the last month or so, people have been collecting fish from the Duhibob swamp and pools near the village.
The villagers of Domande go out in groups to take the fish from the swamps using nets which they lay in a circle and then pull in between several people. The kinds of fish they catch are species of tilapia that weigh on average 1-2 kilograms. Around 50 large fish can be caught this way in a day. Meanwhile most of the fish they catch in the natural ponds are betok (climbing gourany) or gastor fish.
The tilapia, apart from being eaten at home , can also be sold to traders in the village that also own small shops and who buy fish on a skewer for between 10,000 to 13,000 Rupiah, depending on how big or small the fish are – most skewers will weigh over one kilogram. The shop owners bring the fish to Merauke city where they are sold to city traders from between 15,000 to 25,000 per skewer. The gastor fish are normally dried and salted, and a kilogram of dried fish can fetch 13,000 Rupiah.
Stepanus Kaize from Kampung Domande, claims that selling these swamp fish is a great boost to a family’s income. Aside from fishing in the swamp, people also catch fish and prawns from the sea in the appropriate season.
However, the people are worried that their fishing enterprise will yield less fish because of the impacts of PT. Cendrawasih Jaya Mandiri and PT. Karyabumi Papua, which are planning to use the land and swamps for a sugar-cane plantation and factory.
These two subsidiaries of the Rajawali group have already cleared forests around Iwakem, including water sources and the Yahunkihuhui and Ga’ul rivers, and mege pamaa, from which water flows into the Duhibob swamps. It is feared that the changes and loss of the forest will affect water circulation and the character of the local environment, bringing with it changes to plant and animal life, which in turn will reduce the income of people in Kampung Domande and surrounding areas.
Source: Pusaka http://pusaka.or.id/warga-domande-panen-ikan-rawa/
This entry was posted in Merauke News and tagged Domande, Environmental impacts, Fish,PT Cenderawasih Jaya Mandiri, PT Karya Bumi Papua, Rajawali, Rawa. Bookmark thepermalink. Comments are closed, but you can leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
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