Down to Earth
International Campaign for Ecological Justice
in Indonesia
*** URGENT ACTION ***
8 October 1991
MENTAWAI INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ORDERED TO MOVE
Indigenous people living on the rainforest island of Siberut, Indonesia,
have been instructed to leave their traditional homes and move to a
government-supervised resettlement site. In September, officials from
Indonesia's department of Social Affairs, accompanied by members of
Indonesia's Armed Forces (ABRI), 'requested' the Sakalio clan of indigenous
Mentawai people to clear a new site, and collect wood to build regulation
style 'modern' housing. The government aims to resettle the Sakalio by
November. If they refuse, they face arrest.
This is the most recent government action in a forcible resettlement
programme carried on in the name of 'development' and 'improving the
welfare' of the island's 18,000 indigenous forest-dwellers. The programme
removes people from their large traditional clan homes - called umas - in
the rainforest interior, to regulation nuclear family houses on sites nearer
the coast. Here they are expected to grow rice, adopt one of the five
religions permitted under Indonesia's state ideology, Pancasila, and abandon
traditional dress for what the authorities consider 'proper' clothes.
Meanwhile, the government plans to develop oil-palm plantations and timber
estates, which will devastate the island's forests and destroy the habitat
of the island's many endemic species of wildlife (Siberut is listed as a
Biosphere reserve under UNESCO's Man and Biosphere programme). Plans to
bring in transmigrants to work on the plantations pose a further threat to
the indigenous people and their forests.
This latest action by the government threatens to undermine any positive
outcome from a workshop to discuss alternative development strategies for
Siberut, which is planned for November. The workshop aims to bring together
representatives of the Mentawai people, government officials from relevant
government departments and members of the Indonesian forestry conservation
NGO network, SKEPHI. Any government willingness to consider the wishes of
the Mentawai people in Siberut's development is now thrown into doubt.
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SKEPHI is appealing to all concerned organisations and individuals to
protest against the forcible relocation of the Sakalio.
Letters of protest should be addressed to:
Prof. Dr. Haryati Subadio,
Menteri Sosial
Salemba Raya 28
Jakarta Pusat
Indonesia
With copies to:
Prof. Dr. Emil Salim, Menteri KLH, Merdeka Barat 15, Jakarta Pusat,
Indonesia and Soegiarto, Menteri Transmigrasi, Agus Salim 58, Jakarta Pusat,
Indonesia.
For extra speed, letters can be faxed to SKEPHI + 62 21 830 3923
If your government is a member of the IGGI, the Inter- Governmental Group on
Indonesia, please lobby your governments to raise the issue in the context
of development assistance to Indonesia.
Please inform Down to Earth PO BOx 213, London SE5 7LU, England, gn:dte, or
SKEPHI, PO Box 88 JATRA, Jati Rawamangun, Jakarta Timur, Indonesia, of your
actions.
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To obtain copies of a recent 50-page report on the threats facing Siberut,
contact: SOS Siberut, c/o 36 Matlock Court, Kensington Park Road, London W11
3BS.
(Please enclose a cheque for L Sterling 6.00 to cover photocopying and
mailing costs.)