Indonesia: Tribe attacked in palm oil
plantation
The Orang Rimba have lived in
the forests of Sumatra for generations, but now they are
under threat
© Survival Members
of the nomadic Orang Rimba tribe in Indonesia
have been attacked and their possessions burned as part
of an eviction from a palm oil plantation on their
ancestral land.
The
Orang Rimba are a nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe who
have been dependent on and managed their forest home in
Sumatra for generations. Although a national
park was created to protect local wildlife and –
unprecedented in Indonesia – the tribe, the Indonesian
government has signed over most of their ancestral lands
to palm oil, timber and other plantation companies.
As
a result many Orang Rimba are forced to live in
plantations, collecting palm oil seeds and hunting wild
boar. For collecting the seeds, the tribe have been
accused of theft by the company operating in the area,
even though the oil palm is on Orang Rimba ancestral
land and the tribe do not regard such foraging as
theft.
One
Orang Rimba man said: “That is our ancestral land. Our
life and death are in that land. How can it be that we
are forbidden? It’s forbidden for children to take the
seeds which have fallen from the palm oil trees. How can
it be forbidden? They planted palm oil trees all over
our land.”
The
palm oil company PT Bahana Karya Semestra (BKS), which is owned by Sinar Mas, has
recently ordered the Orang Rimba to leave. Members of
the tribe have reported that they were already preparing
to go when they were attacked, beaten and stabbed by
security staff from BKS.
Security
staff then set fire to their shelters, vehicles and
hundreds of loin cloths. According to custom, these are
regarded as the tribespeople’s most precious
possessions. They represent wealth and prestige and are
used to pay fines in Orang Rimba customary law.
The
Orang Rimba’s land and resources are being stolen, and
they are being subjected to violence in the name of
‘’progress.’’ Survival International, the global
movement for tribal peoples rights, is calling for the
Orang Rimba’s right to their ancestral lands to be
recognized.
Read
this online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11340
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