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Resentment lingers in village 'tricked' out of its land
Jakarta Globe - June 14, 2015
According to Maruwei village secretary Timor Banafi, villagers started clearing small trees and shrubs from an area of their customary forest which was to be compulsorily acquired for the mine because they believed they would be entitled to compensation for it if there was evidence the land was being cultivated.
Then at a meeting in 2005 a BHP Billiton community relations officer gave them the impression the company would pay more for land that was also cleared of trees.
Although the company representative did not explicitly mention payment and in fact told villagers he was not advising them to cut down trees on the land, which would be illegal, he said BHP would be "more appreciative" of land that was logged, which would "make things easier" for the company, Banafi told the Jakarta Globe last year.
After the meeting, more than 70 Maruwei families spent months cutting trees and clearing vegetation from a total area of 1,600 hectares, according to Banafi, and while BHP was aware of the land-clearing going on, the company did nothing for several months, after which it reported the activity to government authorities.
When village leaders were finally called to a meeting with government and company representatives to discuss payment, they were informed that the land they had cleared was technically state forest and that BHP would make only "goodwill payments" of Rp 1 million ($103 at the exchange rate back then) per hectare for it.
There are differing accounts of the sequence of events that led to most villagers whose land was acquired signing the compensation agreement, but several people said they only accepted the deal because police came to the village and threatened them with arrest.
"The company asked us to cut the trees and clear the land and said they would buy it with a good price," Eren Frid, the former head of the Maruwei village assembly, told the Globe. "But in fact when it was cut and cleared the price was only Rp 100 per square meter.
"Many people didn't want to sell the land at that price but the government came with police and told us we had to sell it to the company because if not we would be arrested," he added. Eren passed away recently.
"We were afraid not to sell the land because the police came," Maruwei residents Regina and Arayati said, "and many people said 'It's state land and you have to sell it.'"
Some villagers claimed several people who expressed opposition to the compensation price were picked up by police and held in jail for a short time for illegal logging.
There were also allegations that several leaders received payments of Rp 30 million each from BHP after the majority of villagers whose customary land was acquired by the company had signed the agreement.
BHP Billiton has said its activities in relation to land acquisitions in the area were "at all times undertaken in accordance with legal and ethical business practices" and that decisions were made "transparently and based on consensus decision making by landowners."
Compensation payments were guided by government-based guidelines, the company said in a statement, "in a manner consistent with BHP Billiton's commitment to ethics and integrity."
The company did not address specific allegations put to it about payments made to leaders and the actions of its community relations officer.
The loss of forests for hunting and land for cultivation due to the operations of mining companies in the area has had significant impacts on people's livelihoods in Maruwei, where many live in relative poverty.
Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/resentment-lingers-village-tricked-land/.
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