Probe reveals clashes in Sumatra, but doubt cast on massacre videos

Dec 18, 2011, 4:34 GMT

Jakarta - An investigation into alleged mass killings of farmers by plantation companies on Indonesia's Sumatra island revealed fatal clashes, a human rights official said, but authorities cast doubt on videos purportedly showing a massacre.

Farmers from southern Sumatra told legislators in Jakarta last week that 30 villagers had been killed by security personnel hired by plantation companies since 2008.

They provided two video clips depicting what they said was a massacre of farmers in Mesuji district, with one showing a man in uniform holding a severed head.

Ifdhal Kasim, a member of the investigative team and chairman of the National Commission of Human Rights, said nine people had been killed in three separate clashes in the area since November 2010.

In one clash in April, five employees of palm-oil company PT Sumber Wangi Alam and two villagers were killed in a land dispute, Kasim said.

'We want to know why these clashes happened and why security authorities were unable to stop them,' he told dpa.

'Every plantation company in the area have always been guarded by police and military personnel.'

Deputy Justice and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana said authorities were checking reports that parts of the videos presented by the farmers were filmed in southern Thailand.

'We are verifying it and we haven't reached a conclusion,' he was quoted as saying by the Kompas daily newspaper.

Haris Azhar, head of the human rights group Kontras, said the conflicts had arisen because plantation companies reneged on their promises to farmers.

'The company involved farmers in planting, but when they failed to reap profits they reneged on their promises and hired private security forces to intimidate the farmers,' he said.

Azhar said local police and soldiers were often complicit.

SawitWatch, an advocacy group monitoring the conduct of plantation companies, said firms in southern Sumatra had for years forcibly taken over land controlled by local residents.

'The plantation law opens the way for plantation companies to grab people's land, effectively giving them freedom to use violence against farmers,' the group said on its website.