Aerial bombardment of peasants in Sumatran village

Press releases by Watch Indonesia! and WALHI (Friends of the Earth
Indonesia)


Aerial bombardment of peasants in Sumatran village

Berlin, 23rd December 2008:

On Thursday, 18th December, hundreds of police and paramilitaries
attacked the Sumatran village Suluk Bongkal in Riau Province with tear
gas and guns. A helicopter dropped incendiary devices on the village,
with eye witnesses alleging that napalm was used. Hundreds of houses
immediately went up in flames. Two young children were killed and many
people were injured. Most of the villagers have fled into the forest.
Others have been arrested. Two days later, a helicopter flew at low
height over the tents of homeless villagers and bombarded them with stones.

The news sounded so unbelievable that Watch Indonesia! was initially
hesitant to disseminate them, however the information has now been
confirmed, except that the type of bombs dropped still has to be
verified. The environmental organisation WALHI (Friends of the Earth
Indonesia) has identified the attack on poor villagers as the result of
struggles over raw materials and land, which are so common in Indonesia.
In this case, the conflict was over paper and in particular a pulp and
paper plantation by PT Arara Abadi, a subsidiary of Asia Pulp and Paper
(APP) which, in turn is a subsidiary of the Indonesian company Sinar
Mas. PT Arara Abadi/APP used the police and hired paramilitaries in
order to evict villagers with pure force. The Indonesian Human Rights
Commission has now taken on the case.

Watch Indonesia! protests against the attack on Suluk Bongkal and the
extremely brutal violence against the civilian population. We demand an
immediate investigation of this new human rights abuse, compensation for
the local population and a guarantee of their safety and rights, as well
as punishment of those responsible for the violence. We demand that
European governments and companies examine their links to companies such
as Sinar Mas which are responsible for human rights abuses. Europe’s
excessive consumption bears some of the responsibility for the growing
use of violence in land conflicts over paper, palm oil, gold and other
raw materials. Sumatra is not the only place where people are being
violently evicted for mass production of paper.

Contact: Marianne Klute, watchindonesia@snafu.de, klute@snafu.de