“We, the indigenous people of Yowied Village reject corporations coming on to our land in Tubang District for the following reasons: there is not so much land around Yowied Village. Our lives are dependent on what our environment can provide. Where will the future generations go?” The sign is tied with coconut leaves, a signal […]
The forest villages of Merauke are as remote as it is possible to imagine in the twenty-first century. Nowhere in Indonesia is further from Jakarta – 3700 kilometres as the crow flies. 662 km of forest and a high mountain range separate Merauke from the Papuan capital, Jayapura, which is also the focus of most […]
(Merauke, Sept 2013) Compaines operating within the framework of MIFEE, the large-scale food and energy mega-project in Merauke, are still not meeting their commitments to recruit local people to their work force. However, when negotiating to use customary land, companies often promise to use local labour. In Kampung Zanegi, where PT Selaras Inti Semesta (SIS […]
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 […]
(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 […]
In the wake of the recent action by villagers from Kampung Domande, Malind District, Merauke Regency, to block PT Rajawali’s access, now the villagers have ordered company employees who were carrying out work on the land to leave. This means that their logging operations are still not progressing smoothly. When tabloidjubi.com met Djago Bukit, the […]
The issue of PT Rajawali’s compensation to villagers in Kampung Domande, Merauke, has still not been resolved. The villagers, who are the customary landowners, have blocked access to around 10,000 hectares of the land which the company wants to use to plant sugar cane. When Tabloid Jubi met Efendi Kanan, the head of the forestry […]
Merauke 15 April 2013, Without the knowledge or consent of local landowners in Kampung Onggari, Malind district, Merauke, two subsidiaries of the Rajawali Group, PT Karya Bumi Papua and PT Cenderawasi Jaya Mandiri, are destroying ancestral forest, evicting areas of importance and swamps belonging to the people. It is believed that this has been occurring […]
13/12/2012 The Malind indigenous people from Domande and Kaiburse villages are continuing to raise complaints and accusations against two subsidiaries of the Rajawali Group, PT Karyabumi Papua and PT Cenderawasih Jaya Mandiri, which are currently developing sugar cane plantations in Malind and Kurik districts, Merauke, West Papua. The company has already been operating in Domande […]
West Papua, the easternmost island under Indonesia’s control, is a land beset by troubles. Rarely a week goes by without news of some new tragedy in a relentless conflict that has endured and evolved over fifty years. Last June has been a particularly bloody one: troops have gone on the rampage in Wamena, burning houses […]