Not many people, neither left-wing activists nor intellectual defenders of agrarian justice, will have ever heard his name, let alone met him. Mukhlis, a young peasant farmer from Rengas village, Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, was one of twelve victims shot by police mobile brigade (Brimob) in December 2009. On that bloody Friday, he and hundreds of other villagers were defending the reoccupation of their land which had previously been seized by state-owned plantation company PTPN VII. Hot metal pierced his finger. A rubber bullet struck his forehead. The ring finger on his right hand is now shorter than it should be.

Mukhlis remembers, “On that day I was leaving to wash in preparation for Friday prayers. My mother told me “There’s no need to go and join in (defending the land occupation), you’re still young, you’ll just get shot.” Mukhlis was 23 at the time. “But it wasn’t at anyone’s invitation that I decided to join the struggle. Something inside of me was calling,” he continued, as he raised the palm of his hand towards his breast.

Since 1982, thousands of hectares in and around Rengas village, which local people had cultivated for decades and had passed from generation to generation, were taken over by PTPN VII (previously PTP. XI.XXII) to plant sugar cane for the Cinta Manis (Sweet Love) Sugar Factory. It was one of hundreds of stories of land seizures by corporations or the state during Suharto’s New Order administration. These forcible expropriations were accompanied by acts of intimidation, harassment and other violence, and a lack of transparency when it came to awarding compensation. At the time Rengas villagers were given compensation of 150,000 rupiahs per hectare or 15 rupiah per square meter. “Our parents were forced to look for farmland in other regencies. And they had to rent the land,” Mukhlis recalls.

Three years after Mukhlis and dozens of other villagers were wounded by the violence of state troops and hired thugs, it was Angga’s turn to become a martyr. On 27th July 2012, bloody Friday returned once more. This twelve year old kid became the latest sacrifice to Brimob’s guns as they swept through Limbang Jaya village, in Ogan Ilir. In Limbang Jaya. As in Rengas, villagers had long been fighting for their rights to the land seized by PTPN VII Cinta Manis. State forces have always responded to the people’s struggle with intimidation, and sometimes with gunshots.

These tragic incidents have not dampened the efforts of Mukhlis and the other villagers to keep fighting for their rights. Together with two other farmers from Rengas, Mukhlis represented his community at the second congress of the Forum for Communication between Agrarian Communities (FKMA) in the Ambarbinangun Youth Hall, Kasihan, Bantul, Yogyakarta Speial District, last 8th-10th February. I was involved as a volunteer helping with technical aspects of the organisation.

The evening that he reached the congress location, Adi, a colleague of Mukhlis from Rengas, related how enthusiastic they were about this opportunity to share experience about the crucial problems were facing, and to create bonds of solidarity between peasants from different areas under the umbrella of FKMA.

The Story Begins. 1st April 2011, Kulon Progo Shoreline Farmers’ Association was celebrating five years of struggle resisting an iron mine on the south coast. The mine would evict peasant farmers from the area, claiming that the land belongs to Pakualaman Ground (ie. the local Sultan’s palace). Visitors came to this event from the South Kebumen Farmer’s Association Forum (FPPKS) and Wot Galih villagers Solidarity Forum (Foswot) from Lumajang who were also fighting against iron mining. This convergence strengthened communication between the three communities towards the strategic agenda of their struggles, and would also begin to extend the network throughout Java

On the 20th – 22nd December 2011 a meeting for farmers was organised in Kulon Progo. It was attended by ten grassroots communities, from Pati, Lumajang, Kebumen, Cilacap, Kulon Progo, Blitar, Banten, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis, Cilacap and Lapindo mudflow victims from Sidoarjo. Each community had experienced very similar kinds of agrarian situations where the state and corporations had threatened and/or removed people from the land that formed their living space. The founding of the FKMA would be declared in this meeting.

Before the declaration, all the different groups shared experience about each of ther local situations, discussed, mapped out the different actors and different problems which each community was facing. Some examples were treating cases as isolated conflicts, creating a discourse which favoured the company, outsiders creating divisions between the people in order to take advantage of conflict to further their own ends. Peasants were even being charged with criminal offences, in a grand plot of state officials and businessmen working together to deprive the people of their means to support themselves.

The forum has continued to develop communication and consolidate strong bonds of solidarity. The network has also been expanded both to agrarian communities and also others. As more and more agrarian conflicts continued to break out across the country, FKMA organised a second congress. Apart from representatives from the Indonesian Peasant’s Union (SPI) and Rengas Youth Front (FPR) in Ogan Ilir, other groups in attendance included PPLP Kulon Progo, Sedulur Sikep from Pati, People’s Alliance Against Evictions (ARMP) from Parangtritis, Bantul, South Blora Peasant Union and The People Accuse Movement (GERAM) from Blora; Sumedang Independent Peasant Farmers Group, Fisherfolk Forum (Fornel) and Balong Community in Union (PMB) from Jepara, People’s Movement Against Aqua Danaone Factory (GRAPAD) from Banten, Urutsewu United from Kebumen, The Voice of Lapindo Mudflow Victims/AL FAZ from Sidoarjo and Foswot from Lumajang.

The first day of the congress, Friday 8th February, was quite tough. Before the group had even finished outlining all the cases and latest developments from each community, the forum was interrupted by the arrival of more than a dozen intelligence agents from the police and military. After negotiation, the discussion was able to resume smoothly.

An important point which emerged in the Second Congress of FKMA was the question of movement autonomy. “Towards an Autonomous Grassroots Resistance” was chosen as the conference slogan. FKMA was not conceived as an umbrella organisation that would seek to standardize the movement. The diverse strategies of struggle chosen by each community should be maintained as much as possible. The only thing was, and this was something which was only agreed after two days of long discussions and sharing of thoughts and emotions, was that there was a need to regard with caution outsiders that want to help the struggle, whether they be academics, NGOs, mass organisations, student organisations or other elements of civil society. Particular attention was drawn to the political parties which frequently take advantage of grassroots movements to further their own narrow or elitist interests, especially in the run-up to the 2014 elections.

This important point didn’t just emerge out of nowhere. During the discussion, each community could share experiences of how such outside groups had taken advantage of their struggle. In wasn’t only that they had used the struggle for their own agenda, but they were also judged to have weakened the movement, because they had secretly also affiliated themselves with the movements’ enemies. In the end they only caused divisions in the movements’ solidarity.

“Therefore, does that mean that movements need to avoid networking with these outside groups, especially NGOs and academics?” was the immediate response which arose, both during the Forum’s internal discussions and also in the public discussion on the last day of the congress.

No. On one hand, it was re-emphasized that FKMA is not a movement which believes in only one single path of struggle, and on the other, FKMA does not want to be be an exclusive movement. This was the answer given to that question. It means that FKMA still needs solidarity from different elements of society that wish to strengthen the movement.

“Please show your solidarity, but don’t take over!”

Another important point was the strategy of how to confront state violence. Campaigns promoting “non-violent resistance” emerge increasingly frequently, while physical confrontations between state forces and local people in agrarian conflicts take place all the time. There was also an attempt to understand the rationale behind these campaigns, given that currently peasants often take the blame for these physical confrontations, especially in reports in the mainstream media.

If people blockade a road, this image is already considered an act of violence. But if state forces shoot the people then they are judged to be ‘maintaining stability and security’. Yet which group is actually being violent here?

Sunday Lunchtime, 10th February, after the public discussion which was led by Mukhlis from Ogan Ilir and Linggo from Sumedang, the statement of the Second FKMA congress was read out. Standing together with fourteen other people, Sumanto from PPLP Kulon Progo led the declaration.

The declaration was a summary of discussions through the three days of the congress. The main subjects which inspired the declaration were the mechanisms of repression the people face, eviction of their living space that results from the cosy relationship between the state and corporations, whether in the framework of regulations or acts of violence.

[for full text of declaration see here]

This declaration opens the way for fresh energy for agrarian struggle, a chance for the movement to take a deep breath. This is not only seen in the assertive attitude proclaimed in the statement, but also through the active involvement of Mukhlis and other young peasants in the FKMA. As Linggo mentioned in the public discussion, an autonomous agrarian movement needs peasants who are in active resistance. The feeling also emerged in the meeting that an agrarian struggle that can ‘breathe deeper’ needs the involvement of many younger peasants with a will to resist.

The congress ignited the spirit for agrarian struggles, peasants in struggle and young peasant farmers. Because agrarian struggle will not be over even supposing that the various agrarian conflicts mentioned in the statement should one day be resolved. More than just about who wins each dispute, agrarian struggle is a matter of autonomy and the how people in a society can have sovereignty over their own lives.

In a paper he wrote for the second FKMA congress, Indonesian agrarian expert Gunawan Wirandi said that peasant farmers were the foundations of civilisation. Therefore a struggle that has agrarian justice as its goal “cannot be merely a moment, not just a day or two, not just a month or two. This is a long-term struggle, and we have to be aware of that.”

After quoting Gandhi’s Seven Social Sins – politics without principle, wealth without work, commerce without morality, knowledge without character, pleasure without conscience, science without humanity and religion without sacrifice – that he believes are plaguing our lives, Gunawan Wiradi said he hoped that the second FKMA congress could fertilise togetherness, solidarity, a belief in the power of struggle, and a resilience to be always ready to make sacrifices on the long road ahead.

At dawn before the public discussion on the last day of the congress, I had the chance to chat to Mukhlis. He told me how much he would like to visit all the other places that congress participants had come from in order to see directly the problems they were facing. “Unfortunately I can’t right now. But I would really like to… Maybe another time…”

Long Live Solidarity! Long Live the Struggle!

The corporations behind the project work together with local Politicians and local government to destroy the beach. Some anarchists joined horizontally with the fisherfolks to sabotage and blockades to interrupt the reclamation activity and as a form of solidarity.

Long live autonomous and horizontal struggle!

Anti-Authoritarian Fraction

If you want to read or download Farm or Die as a pdf you can do that here (to read online) or here (to print). Otherwise, you can read a selection of the articles here:

• Interview with Widodo: A chilli farmer gives his views on the will farm, the struggle, solidarity and autonomy.
• Chronology of Struggle: Some key moments in the struggle from 2007 to 2011
• Interview with Suratinem: In 2011 Suratinem’s husband Tukijo was abducted from his field by police, and sentenced to three years in prison. Suratinem tells her story.
• SG and PAG: At the root of the land dispute is the local sultanate, who claim the Kulon Progo land despite the farmers clearly having land title. Feudalism may exist informally in other parts of Indonesia, but only here is it protected by law.

For a general background on the Kulon Progo struggle, see A Tale of Sand, which we published in 2009.

There are also a few short films about the struggle, which can be viewed here.

The company the farmers are up against is a joint venture between an Indonesian company (owned by the Sultan of Yogyakarta’s family), and an Australian company Indomines. Recent news from this company is that a majority share has been bought by the Rajawali group, owned by Peter Sondakh, the eighth richest man in Indonesia. This company has been involved in diverse projects which have been met by community resistance, such as the Toka Tindung gold mine in North Sulawesi, and the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate in West Papua. This is an ominous development for the Kulon Progo farmers, as Rajawali has become known for making large investments in new ventures and then pushing forward aggressively to make a profit.

Indeed at Toka Tindung, a controversial project had been making slow progress, very similar to the Kulon Progo project. But soon after Rajawali’s investment, the company was able to start full production at the mine which is now threatening some of the most important land and marine environments on the planet.

Rajawali Group also happens to have the franchise for the Surfer’s Paradise Marriott Hotel on Australia’s Gold Coast. Of course this does not stop them from destroying a paradise for farmers on the south coast of Java, which surfers would surely also appreciate!!!

The next issue of Farm or Die should be out soon, focussing on other communities in struggle around Java which are connected to the Forum Komunikasi Masyarakat Agraria (Agrarian Community’s Forum for Communication), a network of autonomous farmers’ struggles from across Java and nearby provinces.

The Kulon Progo edition of Farm or Die has also been translated into French, and can be downloaded here.

Agrarian or resource conflicts are getting serious. Unclear land-use planning (including the designation of forest areas), along with the government’s attitude which seems to allow these conflicts to happen, are only making the situation worse. Companies come in to inhabited lands, or land owned by local or indigenous people. Conflicts arise between the people, or between the people and the company or the state. More often than not, it’s the people that lose out.

Points of friction keep on arising. Resource conflicts causing loss of life and property have continued all year long. Data from Walhi indicates that in 2011 there were 8307 agrarian conflicts, and 4302 cases that had been resolved.

Most conflicts occurred in West Sumatra with 883 cases, South Sulawesi with 780, West Java 749, Central Java 532, Bali 515, East Java 400, East Nusa Tenggara 335, North Sumatra 331, Banten 324 and East Kalimantan 242 cases. Here’s just a small selection of the agrarian conflicts that occurred this year.

January 2012

The year started with around 84 farmers from Pulau Padang, Meranti Islands Regency, Riau province, protesting outside the doors of the Legislative Council. This was a continuation of their protests from 2011, where they had also sewn their mouths shut.

This time, they didn’t sew their mouths, as that would endanger their lives, Their action was urging the government, especially the Forestry Ministry, to revoke PT Riau Andalan Pulp Paper’s permit, which they believed was destroying the forest ecosystem in Pulau Padang. The company had also been evicting land owned by the people.

Also in January, in Tanah Bumbu Regency, South Kalimantan an agrarian conflict occurred involving PT Batulicin Bumi Bersujud, a company owned by the Regency leader’s younger sibling, which had bid for a permit of 29,000 hectares, including customary land owned by the Meratu Mountains Dayak people, which included their villages, burial grounds and rice fields. The people protested and reported the case to the Forestry Ministry.

In central Halmahera, conflict between the people and a mining company arose towards the end of the month. The land dispute came about because a foreign company, PT Weda Bay Nickel, had opened a nickel mine. The people of Gemaf village and 66 families from Lelilef Sawai village had not received compensation, although their land had been seized. They reported the case to the National Human Rights Commission, which recommended that the company should negotiate a compensation deal and stop intimidating local people.

However, the company continued evicting more land, until the people blockaded the road and got rid of the company’s heavy machinery. The people continued to resist, blocking the way on to their land and making posters calling for action.

Next, on the 26th of January, the people burned the offices of the Bima Regency leader in West Nusa Tenggara as part of their resistance to plans to mine the area. Around 20,000 local people and students had been demonstrating outside the offices. They were demanding that the Regency leader Ferry Zulkarnaen keep his promise made five days before to start a dialogue with the people about revoking decision Number 188/2010 which permitted gold mining operations.

February 2012

The first day of this month was signalled by the creation of a special committee to deal with agrarian conflicts. This committee was set up seeing how many agrarian conflicts were flaring up all over the place.

On 2nd February in Riau Province, five farmers became the victims of brutality from state forces. This happened when they were demnstrating to defend their land from PT Majuma Agro Indonesia.

Towards the end of the month, on 25th February, hundreds of villagers from Fajar Indah village, Mesuji, Lampung Province, rioted at PT Barak Selatan Makmur Investindo. The people were protesting the oil palm company’s presence, and ended up burning the company’s office and fuel store.

March 2012

In early March, the conflict over land where PTPN II’s commercial use rights had expired started heating up. Clashes occurred between three fortifications set up by PTPN II Sei Semayang and two from the local farmers on the land. Poison arrows were fired in this clash which left several local people injured.

Then to close the month, four farmers stitched their mouths shut as a sign of their frustration that a land conflict had not been resolved. Dozens of others glued their mouths shut at the Jambi Governor’s office, Telanaipura, Jambi City.

The farmers were demanding the resolution of the conflicts with various companies which were affecting them, People from the Bathin IX ethnic group were demanding the return of 3600 hectares of customary land which had become an oil palm plantation belonging to PT Asiatic Persada (a subsidiary of Wilmar Group). Farmers from Kunangan Jaya and Mekar Jaya villages were disputing 11,000 hectares of land claimed by PT Agronusa Alam Sejahtera and Wanakasita Nusantara.

April 2012

The beginning of this month saw the farmers of Batahan District, Mandailing Natal Regency take action at the local House of Representatives. They were demanding a resolution of their land conflict with PT Palmaris Raya. They are participants in a government transmigration scheme who arrived to the area from Java in 1998. However, hundreds of them are suffering because land that was allocated to them has instead been seized by the company.

Late April showed the tragic results of what happens when the peoples’ voices are not listened to. People had complained about the presence of PT SLS’s oil palm plantation in Bago Tanggul village, Kalumpang, Hulu Sungai Selatan, South Kalimantan from the outset. But their demands were not heeded and provoked the people’s anger. On April the 23rd armed villagers blockaded the company’s roads, until one worker was killed. The situation remained tense and police and the military were brought in to guard the area.

May 2012

Conflicts between companies and the people kept on happening this month. In Riau Province, on the 7th May 2012 in Topeng Hulu, PT RAKA ‘s conflict with the people got physical and six people were shot in clashes. This company is also in conflict with people in the Tapung Hilir district. On the same day people from Batang Kumu, Rokan Hulu clashed with PT Mazuma Agro Indonesia (MAI). Three people’s houses were damaged or destroyed.

On the 9th May, a demonstration against mining in Bima Regency took place. This was resisting a marble quarry in Campa village, Madapangga dictrict, but ended in chaos with fights almost breaking out between pro- and anti-mining groups. Fortunately, the clash didn’t happen as security forces overseeing the action broke it up.

This act of resistance by local youth started out in Dena village. The crowd blocked a red truck believed to belong to PT Bunga Raya. PT Bunga Raya’s trucks often pass on local streets, causing damage to the roads. On examination if was found that the truck didn’t belong to PT Bunga Raya and was set free.

On May 22nd clashes broke out between the people and PTPN II in Kutalimbaru district, Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra. Between 10 and 20 people were wounded. The situation got entrenched. Several villages near to where the clashes happened appeared empty, as many of the people had fled. They were scared that they would be arrested by police accused of being involved in burning five of PTPN’s trucks.

The conflict happened because this state-owned company claimed the people’s land. The company’s commercial use rights had not yet been renewed. There was also the issue of customary land which had been rented to a plantation company in the Dutch colonial times which was then nationalised to become PTPN II.

On May 26th, an anti-mining demonstration took place in Picuan Lama village, South Minahasa, North Sulawesi, in which two people were shot and a student, Iswadi Sual, was arrested.

The demonstration of villagers from Picuan village was against the PT Sumber Energi Jaya’s gold mine that had been operational for around three months. They were asking the government to revoke the mining permission of this company, whose head office is located in Kapuk Pulo, Jakarta.

That day at noon, the police broke up the demonstration. Two people were hit by gunshots, Leri Sumolang (in the buttocks) and Nautri Marentek (in the arm). Iswadi was arrested.

June 2012

The news that ten people from Pulau Padang wanted to set themselves alight caught attention in early June. They were protesting because the government hadn’t heeded their demands. They had demanded that the government revise decision 327, which gave PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) permission for a industial tree plantation in the Meranti Islands, Riau province.

They had sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), but there was still no response. On the 25th June 2012, the Riau Farmer’s Union (Serikat Tani Riau) were planning to set themselves alight in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.

Events no less worrying occurred in Padang Halaban, Aek Natas, North Sumatra on 4th June. Dozens of farmers were held by police an one villager was shot in a conflict with the oil palm giant PT Smart Tbk, a subsidiary of Sinar Mas.

Fully armed police arrested 60 farmers and brought them to Labuhan Baru police headquarters in three trucks. They were forcibly arrested in a house-to-house search until they gave themselves up without a fight.

July 2012

Our portrait of land conflict this month begins with the action of around 600 farmers from Ogan Ilir Regency, South Sumatra, who came to Jakarta looking for justice. Since the 1980s their land has been taken by PTPN VII Cinta Manis using military force.

They brought with them a letter from the South Sumatra National Land Agency, showing that while PTPN VII only has commercial use rights for 4881.24 hectares of land, they have obtained a permit in principle for 20,000 hectares. The National Land Agency will not process their commercial use rights until the local people’s claims are resolved.

A letter supporting the people’s position was issued by the Governor of South Sumatra on 15th June 2012. In a letter signed by the vice-governor Eddy Yusuf, he asked for a re-evaluation of the land where commercial use rights had been issued, and that the land which was not covered by Commercial use rights be returned to the people. With this letter, the governor was asking the Ministry of state-owned enterprises to pay attention to the farmers’ demands.

Unfortunatly, after actions and dialogue with various institutions, such as the BPN and police, no agreement was obtained from the ministry and PTPN VII. The people returned home empty-handed.

Still in Sumatra, on June 11th, villagers from Seunebok Lapang and Tualang Pateng villages in East Peureulak, East Aceh, occupied PT Padang Palma Permai’s oil palm plantation in Blang Simpo village. They had occupied this land since 1998. However, there had never been any clear resolution, nether from the company nor the East Aceh government.

A bloody conflict took place on 18th July. The people of Balaesang Tanjung village, in Donggala, Central Sulawesi were resisting PT Cahaya Manunggal Abadi’s plans to open a gold mine. In the end, after two heavy machines were burnt on 18th July, police searched the village for the perpetrators. The people resisted being arrested. The police repeatedly used lead bullets against the people. Five were shot.

Because so many agrarian conflicts had been occurring, President SBY addressed the issue in a limited cabinet session at the Attorney General’s office on Wednesday 25th. The president said that he had received many complaints about land issues. Letters or messages complaining about issues such as overlapping land claims arrived nearly every week.

Dealing with land conflicts should not simply be matter for the police. Co-ordination with the BPN must be put in place. Apart from that, local officials such as regency or subdistrict leaders have to co-ordinate to avoid conflict.

SBY then highlighted the fact that in cases where ‘horizontal’ violence broke out between two groups of local people, the police rarely took swift and thorough action.

Unfortunately, it seems that SBY’s fine words meant nothing to his assistants and security forces. Just two days later, deadly conflict returned to Ogan Ilir between PTPN VII Cinta Manis and local farmers. Forces from the police mobile brigade (Brimob) searched villages in Ogan Ilir. Clashes broke out with the police in Limbang Jaya village, resulting in a child shot dead and five injured.

At that time, conditions around PTPN VII Cinta Manis became entrenched. Police forces searched Lubuk Keliat village, arresting people who were later released. The sweeping operation continued in Betung village as the people were engaged in Friday prayers.

The search continued in neighbouring villages, starting with Sri Kembang village. Around 16.00 Brimob forces swept through Tanjung Pinang village towards Limbang Jaya. Hundreds of fully-armed Brimob troops in at least seven trucks arrived in Limbang Jaya.

August 2012

In Central Sulawesi on 6th August, dozens of farmers involved in the Front for Popular Struggle ( Front Perjuangan Rakyat – FPR) demonstrated outside the Provincial Legislative Council in Palu.

The 18 organisations which make up the FPR view the cause of agrarian conflict as the monopoly on land exercised by plantation companies, large-scale mining and state institutions such as Perhutani (a state-owned forestry company), state-owned plantations and national parks.

One of the companies currently in conflict with the people is PT Hardaya Inti Plantations, owned by Hartati Murdaya. In the action, they demanded the release of 13 peasants that were still being held in the Donggala police headquarters since the fatal demonstration several weeks before. They were also demanding that the mine expansion in Dondo district, Tolikari Regency, should be halted.

In Riau, a conflict between villagers originating from a dispute with industrial forestry company PT Sumatra Riang Lestari on Rupat island entered a new stage. On 28th August, an attempt to mediate the dispute was launched at the police headquarters, led by Bengkalis police chief AKPB Toni Ariadi Effendi.

At least 35 participants representing the people, company, police and local government attended this attempt at mediation. In the four pages of notes produced in the meeting, one representative of the people called Sugianto clearly rejected PT SRL’s presence on Rupat Island and called for the people’s land to be removed from PT SRL’s concession.

Yusrizal, the Rupat district chief claimed that in Pergam and Mesim villages 4500 hectares of land cultivated by farmers groups, another 1000 hectares cultivated by individuals, were included in PT SRL’s concession. PT SRL’s representatives argued that they were following the directions of the Regency leader on Rupat Island.

It was agreed in the three-hour-long meeting to form a survey team and to verify the situation on the ground. The team set to work after the meeting. Their main task was to collect data on the land which is disputed by the company and people.

September 2012

In early September, several peasants came to Jakarta, with the aim of finding a way so that their land would not be taken over by mining companies. Actions had already taken place in Sukadamai Baru, Sungai Lilin and Musi Banyuasin villages, South Sumatra, but the company kept on regardless. Eventually villagers brought their complaints to the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam)

Village land and farms were under threat from PT Tigadaya Minergi (TDM). The people were intimidated. Terrorised by the way the company and their accomplices mobilised the police and military in order to smooth the way for mining operations.

In East Kalimantan, the long-running conflict between villagers of Muara Tae and PT Munte Waniq Jaya Perkasa (MWJP) heated up once more. On 22nd September 2012, the people confiscated the keys to a bulldozer to stop evictions of land.

This oil palm company seemed not to care about the people’s resistance. They continued evicting land belonging to local people. The people have tried to stop the company’s operations in several ways. They have tried to find an agreement or resolution to this conflict. They have already made reports to the provincial police chief.

According to him, they had sent many letters of refusal and tried to meet the company’s general manager, but without success. “So it seems that there is no will to resolve this problem”.

On September 29th, repressive actions from police from Batang Police HQ caused injury to several local people. The National Human Rights Commission is investigating.

Events started when a resident of Karanggenang saw a Toyota Kijang Innova beng driven by Khalis Wahyudi from Jepara and with a Japanese passanger called Satoshi Sakamoto from Sumitomo corporation arrive to the location of a planned power plant, to carry out a survey. Several local people tried to meet the two men and invite them to the house of a local resident ,Casnoto, in Ponowareng village.

Around 15.00, police from the local station tried to evacuate the Japanese man. However, seeing a large number of people the local police tried to call for reinforcements.

Then around 16.30 around one hundred members of the Dalmas and Brimob forces of the Pekalongan police headquarters arrived at Ponowareng village. Accompanying the police were dozens of people who nobody knew, but who were carrying sharp weapons. They directly bombarded the people who were gathered there. In the end, violence broke out, and several people were wounded.

October 2012

At the start of the month the Batui people from Honbola village, Bannggai, Central Sulwesi took action, occupying the site of the Donggi Senoro Liquid Natural Gas plant. This action was a way to express the problems which had emerged in the downstream area – the effect of the development was to marginalise local people through manipulation of land compensation and speculators’ scheming with the project’s initiators.

Around 300 hectares of the people’s land was seized to become the Kilang LNG project site, using false, variable or just low payment which also tended to be wrongly directed.

Donggi Senoro LNG had also lied to the public by saying that the technical details of the project were nearly finished, and it would be ready to start operating in 2014. Whereas the Central Sulawesi section of Jatam had investigated and found that there were still around 30 hectares of land out of 300 that had not been paid for. Moreover, around 80 people felt they had been treated unfairly in the manipulative process by which the company had paid for the land.

Things were also heating up in Pollung, Humbang Hasundutan Regency, North Sumatra. On Thursday 18th, local people were on alert and keeping guard, both around the Pandumaan-Sipituhuta indigenous people’s area and the Tombak Haminjon forest, where benzoin trees are grown for their resin which is used as incense.

There has been conflict about the boundaries of the ancestral land with PT Toba Pulp Lestari since 2009. Mapping of the ancestral forest had already occurred and been passed to the forestry ministry via a special committee of the Legislative council. But until then there has been no further news. And with the land’s status still unclear, the company kept felling trees and clearing the land, driving the people to protest.

The state of tension was triggered by the statement of Humbang’s police chief on Wednesday 10th which threatened to arrest eight local people who were accused of having been involved in clashes between the police and PT TPL. The people panicked and prepared to confront the police. They gathered together to guard the village, children and adults together. The indigenous people have always demanded that the problem be resolved using customary law.

In mid-October, representatives of the residents of Buol, Central Sulawesi, came to Jakarta, to demand an agreement. Their demand was to establish once and for all that land should be returned to the people after nearly 20 years under the control of an oil palm company owned by one of Indonesia’s ruling class businesswomen, Sri Hartati Murdaya: PT Hardaya Inti Plantations. Recently, the big boss has been detained by the Corruption Eradication Commission for a case of paying bribes to extend the company’s oil palm plantation permits in the same area.

Back in Buol, on the same day, thousands of people demanded the return of their land which had been taken by the company. According to the people, the company had originally obtained the land through deceitful means, intimidation and violence. In 1993, PT Hardaya Inti Plantations encroached on or evicted a large amount of land that local people had been cultivating in what is now Monunu, Tiloan and Bukal subdistricts.

The people’s resistance to the companies keeps on going. When their voices and even their screams go unheeded, riots can break out. This is what happened in South Tapanuli, North Sumatra on 29th-30th October 2012, when the people’s action ended in a fight. The people had rejected PT Agincourt Resources’ installation of a pipe containing washings from their goldmine in the Batangtoru river. The people fear the pipe will pollute the air which is the water source for around 25 villages in three subdistricts.

Nearly all the people make use of the Batangtoru River’s water, for various household needs and irrigating their crops. Their refusal of the pipeline is valid and realistic. Unfortunately the people’s cries of concern have been lost to the wind.

The people were angry. The company was escorted by hundreds of police and military, enforcing their will to continue laying the pipe. The people had repeatedly rioted since June. The security forces had anticipated the action on Monday 29th. On the second day, Tuesday 30th, the people rioted- at least one vehicle was burnt and four more damaged.

November 2012

The people of Buol were resisting once again. On 2nd November hundreds of farmers from Bukal, Momunu and Tiloan subdstricts, once again obstructed and forbade the passage of vehicles carrying crude palm oil belonging to Hartati Murdaya’s business PT Hardaya Inti Plantations.

Blocking these vehicles’ access was a protest against the company which the people believed had broken the agreement made between the two sides on October 16th.

Sudarmin Paliba, the executive director of the Wanalestari Forest Villagers’ Association in Buol, Central Sulawesi said that it was not the first time that the company had broken an agreement. Actually the company had taken no action in every single agreement made since the year 2000.

By mid-November conflicts between farmers of Jambi province, various companies and the forestry ministry were warming up once more. Unable to resolve the situation at home, they went to Jakarta in desperation. They camped outside the House of Representatives, but were evicted. Then from the 19th November, they built their village in front of the Forestry Ministry.

They came to demand that the Ministry keep its promise made on 16th December 2011 to excise the people’s land from the companies’ concession areas. In a meeting, which was attended by the Forestry Ministry General Secretary Hadi Daryanto, this agreement was made, requiring the people carry out a mapping and inventarisation of the land, which they did on their return to Jambi.

In Gorontalo Province, the people of Bubode village, Tomilito, North Gorontalo, were resisting an industrial forestry plantation, PT Gema Nusantara Jaya, which had taken their land. People supported this by signing a petition and visiting the North Gorontalo District Legislative Council on 12th November 2012.

At the District Legislative council, the people said that the company had been trying to create divisions between the people. They even accused PT GNJ of hiring thugs to intimidate them. But despite their fear of the thugs and soldiers, people were still resisting the industrial forest project. The week before the company had reported around eight villagers to the police, accusing them of damaging trees belonging to the company.

December 2012

On 12th December 2012, hundreds of farmers from Jambi Province started walking from Jambi to Jakarta. It was estimated that his long march covered a distance of about 1000 kilometers.

The farmers started walking from in front of the Jambi forest service. Walking in an orderly formation, the farmers passed around 20 cities in Jambi, South Sumatra, Lampung and Banten provinces.

Some of the places they passed included Simpang Tempino, Banyu Lincir (S. Sumatra), Sungai Lilin (S. Sumatra), Betung (S. Sumatra), Palembang (S. Sumatra), Ogan Komering Ulu (S. Sumatra), Ogan Komering Ilir (S. Sumatra), Mesuji (Lampung), Tulang Bawang (Lampung), Pesawaran (Lampung), Bandar Lampung (Lampung), Kalianda (Lampung), Bakauheni (Lampung), Merak (Banten), Cilegon (Banten), Serang (Banten), Tangeran (Banten) and Jakarta.

Several farmers had accidents along the route. This was one more action in a series of protests by farmers demanding their land be removed from the companies’ concessions. Some of the farmers had already taken action in Jakarta and are still in tents outside the Forestry Ministry.

This latest action of Jambi farmers in Jakarta, setting up camp outside the ministry, seems that it will round off 2012 and give a start to 2013. We just hope that this is not a sign that government will continue to ignore the people’s voices in years to come.

Several demonstrators have been injured after Burmese security forces launched a crackdown against protesters who’ve been occupying part of a Chinese-owned copper mine.

Authorities say riot police used tear gas and water cannon to break up the protest against the expansion of a copper mine near the north-western town of Monywa.

Activists say incendiary devices, such as phosphorous bombs, were thrown into the protest camps, injuring at least 50 people.

For months, thousands of locals have been protesting against the expansion of the mine, which they fear would damage the environment. They’ve also accused Burmese authorities of forcibly evicting residents and confiscating almost 8,000 acres of land.

President Thein Sein’s office said in a statement that water cannon, tear gas and smoke bombs were used against the protesters, but a spokesman denied allegations a form of chemical weapon had been deployed.

“It’s not true at all that chemical weapons were used in the crackdown,” Nyan Tun, a director of the presidential office, said.

Villagers, monks and students had been warned to vacate protest camps near the mine by Tuesday, but had vowed to defy authorities.

The crackdown came as Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited the area, calling for a peaceful solution.

“I want to solve this problem peacefully and in a dignified manner,” she said.

“I want to request that all of you help me on this.”

Addressing a crowd of about 10,000 people near the mine, she said she had met company officials, and hoped to broker a peace.

“I’d like to meet with the respective villagers and those who are opposing this project and mediate between the two sides,” she said.

“I would like to ask the people to cooperate with patience.”

The copper mine, Burma’s biggest, is run by a unit of China North Industries Corp under a deal signed in June 2010.

It is backed by the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, which operated extensively under the military regime that ruled for almost half a century until 2011.

Mining on Bangka island has met with strong popular resistance, even though the North Minahasa government has given it the go ahead, with the Bupati (regency leader) issuing a permit. PT Mikro Metal Perdana’s exploration permit has even recently been extended for one more year. The Bupati has accused the people who took over the ship of acting illegally because that boat had a permit to be there. He has even claimed that the action is the result of provocation by groups who are against progress for North Minahasa.

Bangka Islanders’ plans to resist mining activities are an attempt to defend their livelihoods and environment. They fear the pollution that comes with mining, which they know caused such severe problems for the people of Buyat, not far away in Ratatatok, Southeast Minahasa, when PT Newmont Minahasa Raya were operating there. Because of this, the people are unshakeable, and let it be known that their actions will continue.

(Indonesian-language report at Kokemi)

 July 29: On Friday afternoon, a child was shot dead and at least two other residents were critically injured during a clash between police and residents of the village of Limbang Jaya in South Sumatra.

The incident took place close to the grounds of the Cinta Manis ["Sweet love"] sugar factory, and was said to have occurred as part of an ongoing land dispute in the area.

A demonstration over a land dispute at the Cinta Manis sugar plantation in South Sumatra earlier this month.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said that the violence was provoked by residents hurling rocks at a police vehicle following up on a case regarding stolen goods that belonged to [Cinta Manis].”

The Mobile Brigade (Brimob) vehicle was passing through Limbang Jaya when residents began to hurl rocks at it. Police say they fired a warning shot and tear gas, then fired into the crowd when residents became more violent.

An elementary school student, Angga Fadli bin Mawan, 13, was shot in the head, and died immediately, according to the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

Yarman bin Karuman, 47, a blacksmith, was injured in the arm and back.

The third victim was Farida binti Juni, 48, a housewife, who was injured in the left arm.

“The victims have been evacuated to the Bhayangkara hospital, while the situation in Lembang Jaya is now under control,” Boy said.

Kontras has condemned the police action against the villagers.

“This was a brutal act committed by Brimob officers in a land dispute with the Cinta Manis sugar factory. Kontras strongly condemns the shootings perpetrated by the South Sumatra Mobile Brigade against the people of Limbang Jaya,” Sinung Karto, a Kontras officer responsible for advocacy, law and human rights, said on Saturday.

Sinung added that although the residents had attacked the police with rocks, there was no reason for officers to respond with bullets.

According to information from Kontras and contrary to the police version of event, more than three victims were injured in the conflict.

Kontras said that four other people had gunshot wounds and were in critical condition, including Jessica, 16, and Dud binti Juning, a 30-year-old woman. The two were identified at the Bhayangkara Palembang hospital.

“Then there was Rusman Bin Alimin, and one other whose name we do not know yet,” Sinung said, adding that violence in the area had been ongoing since July 17.

Since then, dozens of residents have become victims, and others have been held at the South Sumatra police headquarters.

Kontras stated the cause of the violence as a land dispute between the Cinta Manis sugar factory and the residents of 22 nearby villages.

“We regret that this incident happened only two days after [President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] said that he would form a team to resolve agrarian disputes,” Sinung said. “This issue shows that the president’s statement is being ignored by police.”

Kontras demanded that the police stop using deadly force against civilians, especially in conflicts over natural resources.

The commission also asked the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the national ombudsman to conduct an investigation into the incident.

The Iban Dayaks from Semunying had always lived simply alongside their natural environment. Then in 2005 an oil palm plantation company appeared, wanting to take over the ancestral forest that had been the backbone of people’s livelihoods for generations.

One year previously the company had obtained permission from the regency government for a 20,000 hectare plantation in Jagoi Babang district. Included in the permit area were 1,420 hectares of land for which the Iban Dayaks were the customary landowners. At first, PT Ledo Lestari, a subsidiary company of Duta Palma Nusantara Group, only built a road which passed close to the ancestral forest. But as time passed, they continued to take more of the land, taking space from the people without permission and eventually clearing their ancestral forest.

While this was going on, the people were fighting for their rights to the forest by conveying their grievances to the local, provincial and national governments. Through their testimony and complaints they even tried to raise the issue at an international level.

On the 15th December 2009 the Bengkayang regency leader designated the 1420 hectares as the ancestral land of Semunying Jaya village, later reinforcing this designation with an official decision (SK 30A/2010). However, it is in the nature of all governments to support the rich and business interests, and so the people’s cries were not listened to and Ledo Lestari was free to fell the forest and replace it with oil palm.

Now aware that the corrupt government, side-by-side with the greedy company, was not going to release their land, on the 7th April 2012 the people of Semunying commenced a week-long occupation where they sealed off the company’s office, seized various items of heavy machinery and operational vehicles, closed the nursery for young trees, and put a stop to the ongoing logging work. “On Monday morning we stopped their ongoing attempts to fell our ancestral forest. Since that Monday, we have continued step-by-step, eventually taking over three excavators, three trucks, three motorbikes, two chainsaws, one bulldozer, as well as closing down PT Ledo Lestari’s offices and tree nurseries. We are demanding our rights back!”, said Abupilah, the Semunying Jaya village secretary.

The people explained that the reason for their resistance was that they knew that as new oil palm plantations were created, they would lose their forests, their land, their forest gardens, their hunting grounds,space to clear for fields and building materials for their houses. Local customs and culture would also be extinguished. Aside from this, the company had closed off the stream which was the source of clean water for the village, making it difficult to obtain clean water.

The company was still determined to keep operating, giving the reason that it had obtained permission from the government. The company also argued that since the forest had only been declared as protected ancestral land five years after they started production, they could not just stop work on the plantation. In the end PT Ledo Lestari kept working because the office and vehicles which the people had seized were only a small part of the company’s equipment and supporting facilities.

In early March, while boisterous Carnival celebrations filled the streets of Rio de Janiero, bulldozers began clearing away Amazonian jungle for roads leading to the construction site of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River in northeast Brazil.

The $10bn dam is planned to be the third largest dam in the world. Government officials say its construction will generate thousands of jobs and create electricity for 23 million homes.

Environmental groups and indigenous activists in the area, however, condemn the project, which they say will displace some 20,000 people, and destroy over 100,000 acres of land in an area full of ecological diversity and indigenous communities.

“We don’t want Belo Monte because it will destroy our rivers, our jungle and our way of life,” Raoni, an indigenous leader from the Kaiapo tribe told the BBC. Ireo Kayapo, another leader, told reporters that if his tribe was pushed from the land, “there’ll be war and blood will be spilled”.

Plans for the Belo Monte dam began in the 1980s under a military government, but its construction was delayed largely due to environmental concerns and resistance from activists.

According to the environmental group Amazon Watch, 80 per cent of the river is planned to be diverted for the dam, causing massive droughts and flooded forests. In order to keep the dam in operation during the three to five month-long dry season, upstream and tributary dams will be needed to store water, causing further displacement and environmental havoc.

In February, indigenous groups gathered in Brasilia, the nation’s capital, to deliver a petition against the dam to Brazil’s recently-inaugurated president Dilma Rousseff. The petition included over half a million signatures, and demanded that Rousseff end the plans for the “disastrous” project.

The bitter standoff between indigenous activists and the new president comes just three months after Rousseff took office. She told the crowd at her inauguration: “Brazil has the holy mission to prove to the world that it is possible to have speedy growth without destroying the environment.” But these words fell flat as her administration quickly okayed plans for the controversial Belo Monte dam.

The move did not surprise long time analysts of Rousseff’s green credentials. Gustavo Faleiros, a Brazilian environmental journalist and editor, said that even going back to the days when Rousseff held the position of minister of mining and energy under the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration, she was seen “as a leader with an old-fashioned view of development”. This view prioritised economic growth over environmental concerns.

With the Belo Monte dam, this vision of development is totally at odds with the livelihoods and rights of indigenous people on the Xingu River.

Amazon Watch explained in a report on Belo Monte:

“Mega-projects typically confront indigenous communities with disease, loss of food and clean water sources, cultural disintegration and human rights abuses by illegal loggers, migrant workers and land speculators”

The promise of development and temporary jobs is also an empty one for the region’s farmers and fisherman who rely on the land and river to survive.

While Brazil continues to establish itself as an economic powerhouse, with 7.5 per cent growth in 2010 alone, the new president needs to focus on indigenous rights and the environment if the country is to progress in an inclusive and sustainable way.

As Sheyla Juruna, an indigenous leader from the Xingu River explained to reporters after delivering the anti-dam petition to president Dilma Rousseff:

“By pushing forward with this dam, the Dilma government is trampling on our rights. This is not just about defending the Xingu River, it’s about the health of the Amazon rainforest and our planet.”

TUSKAHOMA, Okla. — Sardis Lake, a reservoir in southeastern Oklahoma young enough to have drowned saplings still poking through its surface and old enough to have become a renowned bass fishery, is not wanting for suitors.

Oklahoma City and fast-growing suburbs like Edmond want to see the water flowing through their shower heads someday. So do the water masters of Tarrant County, Tex., 200 miles to the south, who are looking to supply new subdivisions around Fort Worth and are suing for access.

Now another rival has arrived: the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, who were exiled to southeastern Oklahoma 175 years ago and given land in the area.

Gregory Pyle, chief of the Choctaw nation, said his tribe would sue to win some of the water if necessary. “All this water was controlled originally by the Indian tribes in this area,” Mr. Pyle said. “It is all Choctaw and Chickasaw water.”

The tribes want the state to recognize them as joint owners. The issue has been increasingly on the minds of city planners in fast-developing cities as they contemplate the prospect of tapping other existing water sources.

By midcentury, water is expected to loom as large as oil in the economic and political life of the country, as parties race to lock up supplies. As droughts exacerbated by climate change and by population growth expand in the Great Plains and the Southwest, Indian water rights loom as a largely unsettled — and unsettling — factor that could affect the price and availability of water to millions of homes and businesses.

“There are huge and vested rights to water that are unquantified,” said Taiawagi Helton, an expert on Indian law and water law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and a member of the Cherokee tribe.

Turning theoretical rights into what is widely termed “wet water” under the terms of long-ago court rulings can take decades. Each case involves other local water users, the state government, the Interior Department, the local Congressional delegation and the federal court system.

A 103-year-old Supreme Court decision effectively put tribes in Western states at the head of the line in times of water shortage, or if a water basin is oversubscribed. But Interior Department officials want to be certain there are no big losers when a tribe’s rights are recognized.

If the Choctaw and Chickasaw were to gain water rights under that old court ruling, legal experts say, it could prompt a new push for similar rights across Oklahoma, which has 39 federally recognized tribes. It could also encourage more tribes in the West to start claiming their reserved rights.

Despite the age of the Supreme Court ruling, known as the Winters doctrine, efforts to quantify tribes’ water rights proceeded at a crawl until the 1980s and 1990s. Since then, about three dozen Indian claims have been tabulated, mostly though drawn-out settlements. Today the Interior Department is presiding over water negotiations with 18 tribes.

A push by the department and by senators in Arizona, Montana and New Mexico resolved four claims at the end of last year. Yet unlike tribes whose rights were signed into law recently, the Choctaw and Chickasaw no longer have reservations, which raises the question of whether water claims must be tied to a specific land grant. The tribes’ land was parceled out to tribal members more than 110 years ago.

Still, “the water was never taken away,” said Stephen Greetham, the lawyer for the Chickasaw nation.

When the Choctaw and Chickasaw did have reservations, their land covered virtually all of southeastern Oklahoma and was watered by the Kiamichi River, whose tributary, Jackfork Creek, was impounded by the Sardis Dam in 1982. The tribes’ goals are to have some ownership and control over the water, to keep as much water as possible in the lake and to enhance southeastern Oklahoma’s recreational industry.

And, assuming the water is valuable, they want to share in the profits from selling or leasing it.

That prospect is unsettling for places that could face water shortages, like Oklahoma City and suburbs like Edmond, whose City Council has already voted to issue $102.5 million in bonds to help bring Sardis Lake water 110 miles north, to the taps of new homes. It is even more unsettling in the Southwest, where irrigated agriculture and industries consume most of the available water.

Daniel McCool, director of the environmental studies program at the University of Utah, cautioned that the more broadly tribes seek to assert their rights, the greater the risk that the federal courts — the Supreme Court in particular — will trim or even eviscerate earlier rulings establishing Indian rights. “It’s case law, and case law can be changed,” Professor McCool said.

The political pushback against Indian rights could come from other local users who fear for their livelihoods, said Chris Kenney, a former federal water rights negotiator now living in Oklahoma.

“You’ve got local people who have used water for many, many years,” Mr. Kenney said. “In many cases they are at enormous risk.”

A settlement just approved by Congress and signed by President Obama granted water from a Colorado River tributary to the Navajo tribe. Two New Mexico towns, Bloomfield and Aztec, are suing to overturn it.

Interior Department officials suggest that the Navajo case is an exception. Negotiated settlements are far more advantageous to both tribes and existing users than litigation, they said in an e-mail response to a query.

Other claims are waiting in the wings. A California tribe, the Chemehuevi, whose reservation was partly inundated in the 1930s when Parker Dam was constructed and Lake Havasu was created in one of the hottest parts of the Mojave Desert, has the right to some Colorado River water. It uses less than a fifth of that annually.

But an effort by the tribe 15 years ago to get federal approval to sell some of the excess met with objections from water users in the area and died for lack of federal support. Now the Chemehuevi would like to lease some water to the Barona Band of Mission Indians in the San Diego area, their lawyer, Lester Marston, said.

Mr. Marston said he wanted to avoid a cumbersome settlement process, however, and Interior Department officials have not warmed to his shortcut. In a statement, department officials said they preferred settlements because they involved the consent of a large number of water users and “benefit the community.”

Also in California, the Tule River Tribe is trying to get rights to water from the South Fork of the Tule River. Mr. Kenney, who is advising the tribe, said the effort was stalled, but would continue.

The Apache in Oklahoma have gone to federal court, so far unsuccessfully, seeking to sell or lease water to the Tarrant County water agency in Texas. And the largest Oklahoma tribe, the Cherokee, has received mixed signals from federal courts as to its rights concerning the Illinois River.

A leading Oklahoma water official said in an interview that he wanted to negotiate with the Choctaw and Chickasaw. “Certainly we’re not foreign to the concept of sitting around the table and working things out with tribes and these tribes in particular,” said the official, J. D. Strong, executive director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, the state’s primary water agency. “It will happen if the leadership of this state wants to do that.”

So far two Oklahoma governors — Brad Henry, a Democrat who left office in January, and his successor, Mary Fallin, a Republican — have not opened formal negotiations with the tribes over Sardis Lake. Alex Weintz, a spokesman for Governor Fallin, said in an e-mail that the governor was awaiting a report being prepared by the state water agency before deciding on her approach.

Mr. Pyle, the Choctaw chief, said he worried most about preserving the economic viability of southeastern Oklahoma for recreation. “When water goes from a region, so goes your economy,” he said.

He said that before water leaves the area, there should be a complete study of local needs and local capacity.

“I want to make sure for history going forward that we have enough water here,” he said.

This documentary analyzes the wave of rural violence that unfolded in the Amazon in the 1980s. Encouraged by government-sponsored programs of colonization, numerous poor, landless peasants from other parts of Brazil came to the Tocantins-Araguaiá region in the 1970s and 1980s with the intent of becoming yeomen. Nonetheless, they soon found that most land was unapt for their purposes, and facing growing debts and other types of coercions, most saw themselves compelled to sell their lands to local landowners, who were becoming gradually more powerful. The landowners themselves also advanced their own interests by manipulating land deeds in order to take over more lands for speculating, a process depicted in the documentary.

The ensuing conflicts were violently resolved. Using the Catholic church, the only legal space for political organization until the mid-1980s, and later the Partido dos Trabalhadores, landless peasants organized themselves to fight back the landlords, and these responded by hiring mercenaries in order to kill resisting peasants. They also created the UDR, whose appearance in the documentary makes it even more interesting (an interview with one of its leaders could have seriously improved it, though). In addition, the Brazilian legal system worked in favor of the landowners, who enjoyed an almost total impunity and were never put in jail because of their crimes. What makes this film an invaluable document is showing the measure to which this impunity existed, in my opinion. The struggles of the “squatter” peasants are also intensely portrayed, and the spectator witness how one of these conflicts ended in success for the peasants –a certainly infrequent outcome.