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The companies violate the rights of the local communities living by the mill and in the concession areas In Indonesia local communities have had very weak rights to their customary land and livelihood, although there are legal provisions for this. In the case of APRIL's pulp mill in Riau there have been numerous conflicts where local communities have demanded their land rights in areas assigned as APRIL's concessions. In the estate where the mill was built in 1993 three villages have been severely affected: Sering, Kerinci and Delik. Their determined protests have lead to some compensations, but the conflict of interest has not been settled. Also in the forest concession areas there are continuous and escalating conflicts because village land is being logged and planted with acacia. There are over 50 000 ha of land where local communities have laid claims to RAPP. In reality this area may be greater because not all cases are noticed until the logging operations start. In many cases the villages have lost trust in the formal process and staged demonstrations to advance their rightful demands. These have been met with oppression by the Indonesian state and by APRIL's personnel. For example in July 1998 Mr. Rasyid of Lubuk Jambi village was stabbed to death by a member of APRIL staff in the course of a demonstration. In October 1997 the road block of Delik villagers was violently broken up by special mobile police unit called by APRIL and the legal advisor of the villagers, Mr. Marganti Manalu was arrested. Later he was convicted under a clause typically used for political activists. The question in Riau is not just right to land but right to culture and livelihood. The dramatic changes in the material and symbolic world of the communities are forced upon them by the mill very rapidly. After having lost a central part of their culture, the forest, many of the traditionally living communities in Riau find it hard to seek their material living or preserve their culture.
Read more about the following cases: Delik,
Sering and Kerinci - The history of the land dispute in the site of
RAPP factories
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