JASS Feminist Land Rights Activist Imprisoned in

Indonesia

Eva Susanti, an activist trained and supported by JASS Southeast Asia, is being held by
police in Indonesia. Susanti’s colleagues at JASS SEA have launched a letter writing
campaign, calling on Indonesian authorities to release her.

Susanti is the Regional Advocacy Coordinator of Rakyat Advokasi Sawit (People’s Front for
Palm Oil Advocacy). Along with local farmers and their families, Susanti was speaking out
against the environmental destruction wrecked by this industry. Many small farmers have lost
their land and livelihoods as thousands of acres have been taken over by large palm
processing companies. She was arrested on May 26, 2010 and charged with being a
provocateur following a protest at the factory and offices of PT Kurnia Luwuk Sejati, a palm
oil processing company in the Central Sulawesi region.

In this particular case, local farmers and activists were protesting the eviction of numerous
families from their land which was bulldozed by the Indonesian Army using equipment from
PT Kurnia Luwuk Sejati.

This is a scenario that is being repeated all over Indonesia as the government’s pro-palm
policies result in anti-poor outcomes. Ironically, the push to increase palm oil cultivation and
production for biofuel is promoted by government and industry as an environmental plus
since it contributes to alternative fuel production However, it is also a major cause of tropical
deforestation and carbon emissions (from the burning of peat in clearing land)—Indonesia is
already the world’s third largest emitter of carbon. Environmental groups foresee an
intensification of the on-going deforestation and carbon emissions nightmares.

Meanwhile, the impact on local communities and indigenous peoples from their land and
livelihoods is occurring at a quickened pace and with complex negative effects on local
populations. Indonesian NGO, Sawit Watch, notes that “thousands of communities, formerly
self-sufficient in food from forest ecosystems and traditional agriculture, now have to
purchase rice on the domestic market, putting more pressure on Indonesia’s rice supply,
which is already strained by global warming and land conversion to non-agricultural
developments.” Furthermore, “most of the concessions for oil-palm cultivation are
unconstitutional” and that many smallholders have been “pressured into accepting land title
deeds for less than half the area they were cultivating previously”.

Susanti, who is also the Director of Kelompok Perjuangan Kesetaraan Perempuan Sulawesi
Tengah (Central Sulawesi Women's Movement for Equality), has been held in jail without
trial since late May. Her case lies languishing in the legal bureaucracy where her legal aid
lawyer faces an uphill battle against the palm oil company and its investors as well as the pro-
palm oil industry government.

JASS SEA has sent a letter of support for Susanti to local authorities, asking that she be freed
and that all charges against her be dropped.

http://www.justassociates.org/sea/eva_susanti_imprisoned_in_indonesia.html