In Solidarity With Indigenous Sakai Of Riau: Stop Judicial Harassment And Criminalization !

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self–Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) expresses utmost concern and fear over indigenous Sakai activist Hermansyah and other members of Sakai community after being legally summoned by Kandis Police in Siak Regency, Riau province, Indonesia.

According to reports from Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (Agrarian Reform Movement Alliance/ AGRA), Hermansyah was summoned last July 10 to the Kandis Police office. He was ordered to report and answer to the Kandis Police Chief about the dispute over the district government building by the developer CV Budi Santosa.

Along with 30 other indigenous Sakai, Hermansyah discussed their position against the project on the Sakai's customary land. The community cited the Minority Ethnicities (Customary Law Communities) in accordance with the 1945 Constitution and the Laws and Regulations under it, as well as ILO Convention 169 concerning the Right to Self-Determination for Indigenous Peoples (IP) on Their Own Customary Land.

The Sakai community along with AGRA demands to drop all forms of legal maneuvers through police investigations that aim to intimidate and discourage the communities assertion of their rights over their customary lands.

With the increasing judicial harassment and criminalization against Indigenous leaders, organizations and communities defending and asserting their ancestral land and territorial rights, the legal and judicial system is weaponized to silence, intimidate and discourage in exercising their rights and freedoms.

In Indonesia’s Riau province, nearly half of oil palm plantations illegally operate, with Indigenous communities suffering land grabs and violent attacks. And while the land grabbing and criminalization worsens, ‘discriminatory’ and ‘debilitating’ obstacles towards ancestral lands recognition and protection remains. The Indonesian government’s own report states that less than 0.1% of the estimated 40 million hectares of forest that is traditionally owned by Indigenous Peoples is legally recognized.

Thus, we enjoin our Indigenous brothers and sisters, IP advocates and land defenders to denounce all forms of judicial harassment and intimidation against indigenous Sakai leaders in Riau, and closely monitor and support their struggle for ancestral land rights.

Land rights now! Defend ancestral lands!

Stop judicial harassment against Indigenous Peoples!

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