JakartaPost/Antara-Sept 28
Civil groups and lawmakers have called for an end to repression and criminalization of farmers and agrarian activists and are pushing for guaranteed protection for land defenders under the recently passed Agrarian Reform Law. Farmers in various regions often face criminalization when defending their land in conflicts against concessions holders. An example was Arminayanti, a farmer from North Aceh regency in Aceh, who recounted that farmers in her region had spent decades in conflict with corporations over overlapping land claims, with the firms attempting to destroy their crops and disrupt access to their fields. When the farmers organized to defend their land, they were repressed instead, she added. One such case occurred in April, when five farmers from North Aceh were arrested by the police in Lampung while traveling to Jakarta to seek legal help over their land conflict. They were later freed after mediation, but not before being subjected to intimidation. Arminayanti expressed hope there would be no more such repression, highlighting the Agrarian Reform Law passed by the House of Representatives on Sept. 22 while urging the government to follow up the regulation. “The law alone isn’t enough. We must ensure that our government truly implements it,” Arminayanti told a forum held by the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA) in Jakarta on Friday, drawing cheers from more than 100 farmers attending the event. Passed less than a month after the bill was included in the legislature’s priority list, the law is expected to strengthen land rights by fairly redistributing land, resolving agrarian conflicts and protecting beneficiaries including farmers, fishers and indigenous people. Those mandates will be overseen by an independent agrarian reform body to be established by the President, according to the law. According to data from the KPA, 404 people faced criminalization and 312 others were assaulted in tenurial conflict-related incidents throughout 2025. At least 19 people were shot and another was killed in those disputes.
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