Land conflicts between residents of Topogaro and Tondo villages in Morowali regency, Central Sulawesi, and PT Indonesia Huabao Industrial Park (PT IHIP) industrial zone heat up with four village residents being sued by a tenant of the industrial zone for blocking its production road.
Four villagers of Morowali, namely Rahman Ladanu, Safaat, Sadam, and Imran, received a summons from the Poso District Court on August 15, 2024 following the lawsuit filed by PT Baoshuo Taman Industri Invesment Group (BTIIG), a tenant in PT IHIP. They have been reported to the Court for blocking the production road within PT IHIP and demanded to compensate a material loss of Rp4.3 billion (US$277,000) following three days of idle production as a result of three days of road blockade in early June 2024.
The villagers bocked the road in the wake of a video footage circulated by Cipto Rustianto, an External Legal Staff of PT IHIP, declaring the disputed road is the legal property of PT IHIP based on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of asset swap with the Regent of Morowali.
The Topogaro farm road, which is now the production road within PT IHIP, long before the existence of a nickel company, was used by the local community as a dirt path.
“It served as the villagers’ access to the Topogaro Cave (cultural site) and coffe and cocoa plantations as well as rice fields,” Wandi, a campaigner for Central Sulawesi Chapter of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI), said in a statement on Monday, August 19, 2024.
The community’s anger over the unilateral claim of the farm road by the company extended to neighboring Ambunu Village, whose residents have had to detour and take a longer distance to travel as the farm road had converted into company buildings and warehouses.
“Until now, PT IHIP has never shown the MoU on the asset swap agreement. Amid the villagers’ blockade of production road, PT BTIIG has launched seven legal attempts to criminalize the residents, ranging from subpoenas, police summonses, to lawsuits,” Wandi said.
He added that unilateral claim of the farm road possession by the company was not the only atrocity allegedly committed by the company.
“There have been efforts by PT IHIP to silence the community fighting for their rights. There was also forced eviction of 14 hectares of productive oil palm land belonging to 12 families of Ambunu Village on October 17, 2022 without the knowledge of the owners,” Wandi said.
PT BTIIG is a nickel smelter-based management company located within PT IHIP industrial zone. PT IHIP’s share composition consists of Zhensi Indonesia Industrial Park with 51percent, Beijing Shengyue Oriental Invesment Co., Ltd with 10.28 percent, PT Kejayaan Emas Persada 27.45percent, and PT Himalaya Global Investment 11.27 percent, with an investment value of Rp14 trillion rupiah. The 20,000-hectare industrial zone is located in the villages of Wata, Tondo, Ambunu, Topogaro, Upanga, Larebonu and Wosu. The development is part of a pilot zone for high-quality international cooperation under the “One Belt, One Road Initiative.”
