PT HIP conflict continues with land occupation by community
On Wednesday, 4 February, dozens of residents from Buol Regency, Central Sulawesi, originating from Mopu Village, Bukal Subdistrict, and several other villages, occupied palm oil land in Mopu Village, which borders Moyong Village, Bukal Subdistrict. For more than a decade, this 149-hectare plot of land has been controlled and planted with oil palms by PT. Hardaya Inti Plantation (PT. HIP) and its partner, the Amanah Plasma Cooperative from Moyong Village, Bukal Subdistrict.
The residents say that they have held land ownership certificates since 2012, with 149 certificates registered to residents. During the occupation, some residents harvested palm oil, some cleared the land, and others searched for the coordinates of their respective plots.
The action began at 9:00 a.m. and lasted until 2:30 p.m. Approximately one hour after the residents began their action, a legal representative of PT. HIP management, who introduced himself as Mr. Ade, met with the community to question them about their actions.
The community representative, Mopu Village Head Rusli Ramli, stated that the action was carried out as the residents’ desire to fight for their rights and question who had planted palm oil on the residents’ land, as there had never been a partnership between the company and the cooperative with the residents, while the residents had held valid ownership documents since 2012.
The company argued that the palm trees on the land had been there since 2008. One of the representatives of the Mopu Village community, Hasanudin Talib, refuted the company’s statement. Talib stated that he had only been a contractor supplying seedlings to the location since 2016, and in fact the palm trees were only 3-5 metres tall, with some even still producing fruit. Sudarmin Paliba, another representative of the Mopu Village community, then pressed the company’s legal representative for further clarification on who actually planted the palm trees.
Ade then said that it was the company, in partnership with the Amanah Moyong Cooperative, that planted the palm trees in the area. Sudarmin emphasised that based on PT. HIP’s own review in 2017, the land was not the company’s location. In the same year, the Amanah Moyong Cooperative also issued a letter stating that the disputed location with the farmers from Mopu was not part of the Amanah Cooperative’s territory, and the cooperative’s management even asked the company to find a solution to the dispute.
On the other hand, the Head of Moyong Village also issued a statement explaining that there had been no additional plantation locations in Moyong Village, which was originally part of Mopu Village and had been released by the transmigration office. On that basis, the residents then occupied the land due to their accumulated frustrations, as they had legal ownership of the land but others were enjoying the profits.
The Indonesian Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) has been investigating alleged violations of the plasma scheme by PT HIP since 2019, and, in the process, found that PT HIP was in violation.
Contact:
Sudarmin Paliba (082188581878)
*Reposted from farmlandgrab.org