On 28 November 2024, a tragic incident unfolded in Parim Village, Serambakon District, Pegunungan Bintang Regency, when Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) personnel killed Mr Methodius Uropmabin, 28, and Mr Nerius Oktemka,25. The TNI claimed the victims were on a wanted list (DPO) for their alleged involvement with the TPN-PB KODAP 35 Bintang Timur, following an incident in 2020. However, the operation raised serious concerns about due process and the use of lethal force, as the victims were reportedly abducted from their homes, detained, and killed under circumstances suggesting extrajudicial execution. The TNI justified their actions by citing reports from the local community about the victims’ alleged activities.
In the early hours of 28 November, at approximately 2:00 am, TNI forces entered Parim Village without prior consultation with the local community. They forcibly circled the house in which Mr Uropmabin and Mr Oktemka were sleeping. According to the information received, the military forces opened fire, with bullets piercing through the wooden walls. Mr Uropmabin died instantly, while Mr Oktemka survived the shooting. He was brought to the Kalomdol District Military Command. When the car passed the Seram District Office, Mr Oktemka reportedly attempted to flee and was fatally shot three times. Both bodies were later returned to their families by TNI personnel after local officials intervened. They were buried in Parim Village that same day.
This case highlights critical human rights violations, including the lack of judicial oversight, the use of excessive force, and the apparent absence of fair trial rights. The extra-judicial nature of the killings contravenes international human rights standards and Indonesia’s obligations under domestic and international law. The reliance on unverified community reports as grounds for lethal action further exacerbates the issue, raising questions about the accountability of the TNI and the systemic failure to ensure justice. This incident underscores the urgent need for independent investigations and structural reforms to prevent the recurrence of such violations.
Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo, a former Army general, won the presidential election in February 2024. Prabowo was implicated in grave rights violations while he was in military service that had led to his dismissal. His running mate, Gibran Raka, is the eldest son of outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
In August, street protests erupted in at least 16 cities in Indonesia, including the capital, Jakarta, after Jokowi’s ruling coalition attempted to tamper with the election law to allow candidates below age 30 to run for office in local elections. The protesters accused the government of nepotism because there was only one candidate under 30: Kaesang Pangareb, Jokowi’s youngest son. Earlier, Jokowi had helped Gibran Raka to become Prabowo’s running mate.
Indonesia’s parliament passed a new criminal code in December 2022, containing provisions that seriously violate international human rights law and standards.
Indonesian authorities committed or condoned numerous human rights abuses involving discrimination on religious, ethnic, social, gender, and sexual orientation grounds.
Authorities failed to address longstanding racial discrimination against Indigenous Papuans despite protests across 33 cities in 2019, after an attack on Papuan university students by security forces in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city. This includes denial of their rights to health, livelihood, and education.
While at least 245 people were convicted for participating in protests, including 109 for treason, they were given much shorter prison terms due to international and domestic pressure. Most had been released by 2024 because they had already served much of their term in pre-trial detention. Three fishermen from Manokwari, who were convicted of treason for unfurling the Morning Star and holding a protest prayer meeting in October 2022, were released in September.
A video posted in March on social media showed three Indonesian soldiers brutally beating Definus Kogoya, a young Papuan man, whose hands were tied behind him and who had been placed inside a drum filled with water, taunting him with racial slurs. While the army apologized and promised an investigation, there have been no prosecutions.
The fighting between pro-independence Papuan insurgents and the Indonesian security forces contributed to the deteriorating human rights situation in West Papua. The insurgents are implicated in the killings of migrants and foreign workers. They held a New Zealand pilot, Philip Mehrtens, hostage between February 2023 and September 2024, releasing him after 594 days on “humanitarian grounds.”
The 2006 regulation continued to empower religious majorities to veto activities by minority religions including Christians, Shia Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Confucians or to stop them from constructing houses of worship. Smaller minorities, including Ahmadiyah, Bah’ai, and Indigenous faiths, continue to face even harsher treatment.
Indonesian authorities did too little to stop Islamic groups attacking or harassing religious minorities or to hold those responsible to account. For instance, in March, dozens of Muslim extremists attacked a religious service held by a Christian group in Tangerang, claiming it had “no permit” to conduct services.
In September, Pope Francis visited Jakarta as part of a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. He visited the Istiqlal grand mosque and met the grand imam, signing a declaration of interfaith friendship.
In a step forward for freedom of religion and belief in Indonesia, in January, citizens from smaller religious groups were permitted to change the religious identity on their identity cards, with the introduction of a new category, kepercayaan (belief), alongside the six recognized religions.
Women’s and Girls’ Rights
Local authorities continued to enforce 73 mandatory hijab regulations since they were first introduced in West Sumatra in 2001, with sanctions ranging from verbal warnings, expulsion from school or work, to jail terms of up to three months. Many girls and women who refused to comply with the rules, including non-Muslims, faced expulsion or pressure to withdraw from school. In several cases, female civil servants, including teachers and university lecturers, lost their jobs or had to resign for refusing to comply with the rules.
The new criminal code maintains criminalization of abortion with exceptions, and now criminalizes distributing information about contraceptives to children, and providing information about obtaining an abortion to anyone.
Restrictions on Civil Society and Media
In June, a journalist who had exposed an army officer for allegedly backing online gambling was killed in a deadly arson attack. Rico Sempurna Pasaribu, 47, of the Medan-based Tribata TV, and three members of his family were found dead inside their small wooden house in Kabanjahe. Media organizations said they feared a cover-up in the investigations.
In March, Indonesian authorities signed an agreement ending the requirement that defamation disputes with student media should be referred to the police or public prosecutors. Instead, the national Press Council will now mediate all defamation disputes involving student journalists and publications.
Disability Rights
People with real or perceived psychosocial disabilities continued to be shackled—chained or locked in confined spaces—due to stigma, as well as inadequate support and mental health services. The 2024 US State Department annual human rights report stated that the Indonesian government prioritized eliminating the practice of shackling. The number of people living in chains was approximately 4,300.
JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — The woman carries bananas, yams and vegetables in a knotted bag on her head as she wanders through a market in a suburban area of Jayapura in eastern Indonesia.
Even in the Papua capital and bigger cities of the province, a noken bag where people carry their daily essentials is a common sight.
The distinctive bag, handcrafted from natural fibers like tree bark or leaves, is woven and knotted with threads of Papuan heritage. The U.N. cultural agency UNESCO recognized the traditional bag as needing urgent safeguarding in 2012 because
there are fewer crafters making noken and more competition from factory-made bags.
Crafter Mariana Pekei sells her handmade bags daily in Youtefa market in Jayapura, along with other women from her village.
“It is difficult to craft from the tree bark,” Pekei said.
They collect the raw materials from melinjo trees or orchids, facing dangers like mosquitoes in the forest. They then process the material into thread fibers, including by spinning the fibers together in their palms and on their thighs, which can cause wounds and scar their skin.
“If it’s made of yarn, we can craft, knot it directly with our hands,” Pekei said.
The price of noken depends on the material as well as the craftsmanship. A small bag can be made in a day, but the bigger ones require more creativity from the maker and more precision and patience.
Sometimes, the noken is colored by using natural dyes, mostly light brown or cream with some yellowish brown.
“Those are the color of Papuan people and the Papuan land,” Pekei said.
With its seemingly simple yet intricate winding technique and the symbolism it holds, the noken has become a valuable item passed down from generation to generation.
For people from outside Papua, noken are an always sought-after souvenir, which can be found easily at the market or the souvenir stores. Despite the high transportation costs, crafters often journey from their remote villages to Jayapura, determined to sell their noken and share their craft with the city.
But more than just a practical tool for carrying goods or souvenir, Pekei said that a noken serves as a powerful cultural symbol, representing the resilience, unity, and creativity of the Papuan people.
Jayapura (Agenzia Fides) – The sudden occupation of forest areas and villages of indigenous peoples by the massive deployment of military units in the Indonesian region of Papua is becoming a constant that marks the life of an entire region with its human and natural heritage.
This is what happened to the inhabitants of five villages in the Oksop district (in central Papua, in the territory of the diocese of Jayapura), who fled to other areas, such as the neighboring Oksibil district, at the end of November due to the deployment of military units. “The presence of the military in the Oksop district has caused fear and insecurity in the community. Various actions by the military, such as setting up posts in churches and using public facilities without permission, have further aggravated the situation,” says Father Alexandro Rangga (OFM), Friar Minor and Director of the “Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation” Commission in Papua.
According to the Franciscan Commission, 300 people have been displaced to other villages, while many are hiding in the forests. “The fundamental problem in Papua is the way in which the Indonesian central government pursues national projects with a military approach.
In addition, the massive presence of the military also brings with it activities promoted by the military itself, with conflicts of interest and operations on the edge of legality,” notes the Franciscan. As an official statement from the Diocese of Jayapura confirms, “the security situation in Oksop district remains unfavorable.” Indeed, “the refugees are reluctant to return to their home villages because they are afraid.” The presence of more and more troops – three troops were sent between January 13 and 15, 2025 alone – has increased tensions.
“The displaced people have had traumatic experiences when they had to leave their homes,” reports the Franciscan. In response to this emergency, the Church of Jayapura and the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission are calling on the government to “withdraw the armed forces from Oksop district and open a space for dialogue to find a peaceful solution” and, in the meantime, “provide adequate humanitarian assistance to the refugees.” The path of dialogue, says the Franciscan, “is the only way to end the violence and create a sustainable peace in Papua.
” Assessing the overall situation, Father Rannga notes that “the situation has worsened in recent years.” “Although the Indonesian government has moved from a ‘security’ approach to one that speaks of ‘welfare’ on a verbal level, in reality soldiers are still being deployed to carry out all kinds of programs on the ground,” he explains.
“This is worrying because people have already had a long and traumatic experience with the military. In total, there are between 60,000 and 100,000 internally displaced people in Papua, mainly from Maybrat, Kiwirok and Intan Jaya.” In addition, the Indonesian government “has been creating food plantations in West Papua since 2020 (often for palm oil plantations, editor’s note) without obtaining the consent of the indigenous peoples, who feel cheated of their land: they use the local authorities or the army to take over the land by force, and this approach leads to clashes and discontent,” he continues.
“As the Commission for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, we have drawn the attention of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) to these problems: ancestral ownership of land, inequalities between indigenous Papuans and migrants, access to health and education facilities,” said the religious. Tensions in the area date back to the controversial 1969 referendum that incorporated Papua into the Republic of Indonesia, inaugurating a long period of progressive impoverishment and marginalization of the indigenous Papuans.
The rise of separatist armed groups (such as the West Papuan National Liberation Army (TPN-PB), the armed wing of the Papua Liberation Movement) sparked a low-intensity conflict that forced thousands of people to flee and further complicated life in a region already characterized by underdevelopment. In addition, projects to exploit Papua’s enormous natural wealth (palm oil, copper, gold, timber, natural gas) do not benefit the indigenous population, who instead bear the negative impacts such as land destruction, contamination of water sources and the resulting health problems.
In the meantime, the internal migration program (“Transmigrasi”) promoted by Jakarta changed the demographic composition of Papua, weakening the socioeconomic status of indigenous Papuans and limiting their employment opportunities. Locals complain that they have “become foreigners in their own country”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 17/1/2024)
Around 327 people remain displaced, many others hiding in forests in Oksop district, they say
Church officials in Indonesia have rejected Indonesian security forces’ claims of normalcy in a conflict zone in Papua, expressing concerns about the situation of displaced people and their safety.
The Church leaders said the security situation in the five villages in Oksop district is not yet normal, according to reports from pastoral officers of the Church in the field.
Bishop Yanuarius Theofilus Matopai You of Jayapura, based in Papua, and Father Alexandro Rangga of the Franciscans’ Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Commission Papua expressed the Church’s concerns in a statement.
“As of today, an estimated 327 people remain displaced, with many others choosing to hide in the forest,” they said in their Jan. 17 statement.
It refuted the security forces’ claim in the media that residents who were displaced because of the conflict had returned to their villages.
Security forces spokesperson Yusuf Sutejo told the media that people have returned and are “carrying out normal activities in four villages. Only Mimin village is still under the supervision of security forces.”
Bishop You said they have detailed data on the number of displaced people, including by gender, age, and village of origin.
“However, for the safety of the displaced people, we cannot share this data with the public,” he explained.
The Church leaders said the security claims raise “deep concern,” and hence, “the Catholic Church felt compelled to clarify the real situation.”
Father Rangga said they want the joint security forces to withdraw from the Oksop district.
“The presence of troops is increasing. The deployment of additional troops on Jan. 13-15, 2025, has only increased the community’s anxiety,” he said.
The Church leaders said the security forces setting up their posts inside church compounds and using community facilities without permission worsened the situation.
Father Rangga told UCA News that residents of the five affected villages fled the area due to the increasing presence of security forces since late November last year.
“Fear of armed conflict prompted them to flee to safer places,” he said.
The security forces are targeting members of the West Papua National Liberation Army, which is allegedly working to free Papua from Indonesian control.
The renewed violence has displaced hundreds.
A displaced person from Atenar village, who did not want to be named because of security concerns, said he witnessed security forces setting up posts in community properties in his village as well as neighboring Mimin village.
“They dismantled an Evangelical church to make a fire pit. Church facilities are regularly used as security posts,” he said.
He also reported hearing gunshots day and night. “We don’t know whether they are shooting at their opponents or not,” he added.
The Catholic Church has urged the Indonesian government to form an independent team to investigate the causes of the conflict and ensure accountability for human rights violations.
“Firstly, withdraw military troops from Oksop district and open up space for dialogue to find a peaceful solution,” they said.
Peter Dutton’s hopes for Australia to be the first nation in the Southern Hemisphere to pioneer the use of small-to-medium nuclear reactors seem dashed.
Not because of ALP hostility, doomscrolling by economists, a twitchy electorate, forests of greenies and swags of sceptics – but because we could be overtaken by Indonesia hurtling down the fast lane.
(Below the Equator the 40-year-old Koeberg reactor in South Africa is not an SMR.)
While we argue on the minuses, Indonesia is adding the positives and deleting (or overlooking) the negatives.
Despite being geologically unstable and having no experience in the dicey business of juggling atoms for peace (the country’s research reactor is a sexagenarian), Indonesia is planning for at least 20 nuclear units.
Once opponents are trampled, a $1.63 billion prototype could be in place by 2028, boiling kettles and powering tools four years later.
Several locations have been proposed, frightening the locals. The currently favoured hot spot eliminates community concerns, for the 221-hectare Kelasa Island on the east side of Sumatra is uninhabited.
Economic Affairs Minister, Airlangga Hartarto reportedly told investors in December that the “PLN (the State-owned power-generation monopoly PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara) has already partnered with American and Japanese companies to develop small modular reactors with a capacity of less than 300 MW.”
In March 2023, Indonesia and the US Trade and Development Agency signed an agreement to develop modular reactor technology. PLN got a $1 million grant for feasibility studies.
Facts are scarce. This story has more quirks and qualifiers than a commentator’s election predictions. “Probably, potentially, expressions of interest, expected, estimated …”. The list is long. The confusion is deep and deliberate.
There’s a little mutton on the menu. PT ThorCon Power Indonesia has been named as the force behind the proposal “crafted in collaboration with key stakeholders.”
This show is hardly General Electric. One site says it has only three employees, another almost 20.
Its website reports that it’s a wholly foreign-owned company involved in Indonesia since 2018. It has “engaged closely with the Indonesian Government …and had consultations with BAPETEN.” Badan Pengawas Tenaga Nuklir is the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency.
What’s going on when foreign hustlers can be ushered into Jakarta’s top-floor boardrooms and given time to PowerPoint?
Here’s the clue, coming from the US-based non-profit agency the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis: It writes about Indonesia’s “nuclear power euphoria” then adds it’s “all smoke and mirrors with no current technical, financial or market viability”.
Such negativity from a credible source should smother the idea. However, Generation WiFi is impatient. An opinion survey last decade alleged “a consistent year-on-year increase in support for nuclear” – as it would, having been generated by the World Nuclear Association.
Former President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo told the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change his nation would slash greenhouse gas emissions, promising carbon neutrality by 2050.
Difficult in a country with 132 million petrol-powered motorbikes and 37 coal-fired stations plus a further 15 starting up this year, (‘25) Lesser sources are oil, hydro, biomass, solar, wind and geothermal. Industrial and domestic power users have little choice – diesel gensets or PLN.
Australia isn’t the only lucky country for goodies to dig and sell. Three of Indonesia’s mega billionaires are King Coals. Chinese-owned nickel over-producers in Sulawesi have forced ten Australian mines to close.
The archipelago has an estimated 23 billion metric tonnes of low-calorie coal mostly in East Kalimantan. Ironically this is where the new capital Nusantara is rising as an “eco-city” running on renewables.
China, India and the Philippines are the main buyers. Last year (2024) exports topped expectations by more than eight per cent.
Selling more to reduce needs sounds like the Vietnam Battle of Bến Tre quote: “We had to destroy the town to save it.”
Domestic rooftop solar panels are rare in Indonesia. The technology has few enthusiasts and fewer installers. There are only two “utility-scale wind farms” in the country with a total of 50 turbines.
Said an IEEFA report: “Despite the steady erosion of nuclear power’s competitive potential, key Southeast Asian energy ministries continue to be lobbied by nuclear advocates.
“In growing power markets like Indonesia, decision-makers are facing a barrage of pro-nuclear media coverage as the nuclear industry floods the market with panels and webinars.
“Many of these offerings are sponsored by lobbyists for the international backers of new small modular reactor technologies, who are actively engaging with governments and utilities.”
That’s happening with ThorCon Power Indonesia that spruiks:
“Given the limited potential for renewable energy in Indonesia’s base-load capacity, nuclear energy is seen as a viable solution to meet the country’s substantial low-carbon energy demand. ThorCon’s nuclear facility will utilize a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR), expected to provide 500 MW of low-carbon electricity.
“ThorCon has to be potentially become the first company to build and operate Indonesian first Nuclear Power Plant.” Hopefully, their techs are better with uranium than grammar.
The untested plan has units assembled in South Korea and barged to Indonesia. Waste won’t be an issue as Mr Dutton reportedly says it can fit in a Coke can. The nation with the world’s fourth-largest thirst has an abundance.
The costs, inevitable blowouts and uncertainties involved in new tech are worries enough, but the biggest barrier is the Ring of Fire. It’s a 40,000 km long tectonic belt of trembling soils, big bang mountains and seafloor upheavals causing tsunamis – like the 2004 Aceh tragedy,
The moods of Indonesia’s 127 active volcanoes are idiosyncratic. Every year several spew fire and fumes, burning people and property. Having a nuclear reactor nearby, however small, green and funded by private investors may not be the government’s best thought bubble.
ThorCon’s impressive name and offices in Jakarta and Bangka belie the reality that its public information is confusing.
One site says it’s a “Singapore-based special purpose company which (sic) established for the purpose of financing the $USD 1,2 billion Indonesia project.”
ThorCon US, Inc. reports it’s “a business company in the US, owned by the founder of ThorCon Power, that owns the intellectual property for the ThorCon TMSR500 design.”
Another site claims it’s headquartered in Dubai and appears to be a door-opener for big investors – the most prominent is Virya.
This private Belgium-based company is “committed to finding the best investment opportunities globally and building investment portfolios for sustained rapid growth … progressing with you in the wealth creation journey and enjoy a prosperous and beautiful life together!”
No mention of nuclear.
Indonesia has a record of speedily completing major industrial projects using Chinese money and cheap labour toiling 24/7. Java toll roads and Sulawesi nickel smelters have been built years faster than similar jobs in Australia.
Cutting health and safety measures and barging aside community and environmental naysayers has put pedal to metal. In the time it takes Canberra to publish another committee report, SMRs in Indonesia could be lighting the way to a brighter future.
Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia. Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Ja
An Indonesian minister within Prabowo Subianto’s new government took little time to announce plans to resume a former transmigration program throughout the eastern regions of a sovereign Indonesia, including the largest Papua province in western New Guinea, saying it was needed to enhance unity and provide locals with welfare.
Transmigration is the controversial process of forcibly moving Indigenous people on from their existing residences in a densely populated part of Indonesia to less densely populated areas of the country.
But for Indigenous Papuans that have a cultural connection and far more in common with their brothers in Papua New Guinea, displacement of Papuan populations remain a historical sore point.
The ministry intends to revitalise 10 zones in Papua, potentially using local relocation rather than bringing in outsiders and/or foreigners for work.
The program had been on pause for 23 years after it was found to severely propagate and to accelerate the Papuan independence movement in the western half of the New Guinea that has been under Indonesian control since October 1962 following the exodus of Dutch colonists.
“We want Papua to be fully united, as a part of Indonesia in terms of welfare, national unity and beyond,” Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara, the revived minister of transmigration, said.
Mr Iftitah has promised strict evaluations focusing on community welfare rather than just relocation numbers.
Despite the minister’s promises, the plan has since drew outcry from Indigenous Papuans, citing social and economic concerns.
The purpose of this program was officially to reduce poverty and to provide opportunities for hard-working poor people by providing a workforce to utilise natural resources of the nation.
But in Papua, a remote and resource-rich region, it is viewed as a form of indentured labour.
The program has been a flashpoint for conflict, with its people enduring decades of alleged military abuse and human rights violations under Indonesian rule.
Simon Balagaize, a young Papuan leader from Merauke, highlighted the negative impacts of transmigration efforts in Papua under dictator Suharto’s New Order during the 1960s.
“Customary land was taken, forests were cut down, (while) the indigenous Malind people now speak Javanese better than their native language,” he told the independent Southeast Asian, BenarNews, last month.
The Papuan Church Council stressed locals desperately do require increased services, but could do without more transmigration
“Papuans need education, health services and welfare – not transmigration that only further marginalizes landowners,” Rev Dorman Wandikbo, a council member, told BenarNews.
Transmigration into Papua has sparked protests on concerns about reduced employment opportunities for Indigenous people.
Human rights advocate Theo Hasegem criticised the government’s step back, arguing the human rights issues are ignored under transmigration, and non-Papuans could also be endangered because separatist groups often target newcomers.
“Do the president and vice president guarantee the safety of those relocated from Java?” Hasegem told BenarNews.
The program dates to 1905 during the Dutch East Indies administration and was a program an independent Indonesia adopted and continued through a number of its administrations under the guise of promoting development and unity.
It also aimed to promote social and cultural unity by relocating citizens across regions.
Transmigration involved 78,000 families in Papua from 1964 to 1999, according to statistics from the Papua provincial government.
The program only had paused in 2001 after a special Indonesian autonomy law required regional regulations to be followed.
A Papuan legislator, John N R Gobay, questioned the role of Papua’s latest autonomous regional governments for the transmigration process.
He cited an article of the law mandating that transmigration proceeds only with gubernatorial consent and regulatory backing.
Without clear regional regulations, he warned, transmigration lacks a strong legal foundation and could conflict with special autonomy rules that exist in Western New Guinean provinces.
United Nations data estimates between 60,000 and 100,000 Papuans have been displaced since 2022, after Indonesia denies UN officials access to the region, while human rights advocates in the area recently said the figure is 79,000.
Indonesia’s forestry minister says 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of forest can be converted to grow food and biofuel crops, or an area twice the size of South Korea.
Experts have expressed alarm over the plan, citing the potential for massive greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity.
They also say mitigating measures that the minister has promised, such as the use of agroforestry and the involvement of local communities, will have limited impact in such a large-scale scheme.
The announcement coincides with the Indonesian president’s call for an expansion of the country’s oil palm plantations, claiming it won’t result in deforestation because oil palms are also trees.
JAKARTA — An Indonesian government plan to clear forests spanning an area twice the size of South Korea for food and biofuel crops has sparked fears of massive greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss.
The country’s forestry minister, Raja Juli Antoni, announced on Dec. 30, 2024, that his office had identified forest areas spanning 20 million hectares (50 million acres) for potential conversion into “food and energy estates.”
The announcement triggered an immediate backlash, as similar food estate programs in the past have failed, often leaving a legacy of environmental destruction. Indonesia has the world’s third-largest expanse of tropical rainforest, after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and such a vast amount of deforestation would deal a major blow to global efforts of limiting global warming, said Amalya Reza Oktaviani, bioenergy campaign manager at the NGO Trend Asia.
The clearing of 20 million hectares of forests could release up to 22 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the annual emissions from nearly 5,300 coal-fired power plants.
“This [food and energy estate plan] shows how the government doesn’t have a commitment to reforest and rehabilitate natural forests,” Amalya said. “In reality, we don’t have the luxury of deforesting amid the climate crisis.”
Yet the plan aligns with the platform of President Prabowo Subianto, who has prioritized achieving both food and energy self-sufficiency as cornerstones of his administration. Since his election campaign in late 2023 and early 2024, Prabowo has emphasized the need for Indonesia to achieve sovereignty in these critical sectors to bolster economic resilience and national security.
Over decades, unbridled agricultural expansion has already destroyed vast swaths of Indonesia’s rainforests, turning the country into a significant global emitter of greenhouse gases. From 2013 to 2022, Indonesia ranked as the world’s second-largest emitter from land-use change, contributing 20% of global land-use emissions.
Agroforestry claims
In response to criticism, Forestry Minister Raja said the government would minimize deforestation by implementing agroforestry, a system where crop cultivation is interspersed among trees. Potential crops include rice and sugar palms, which, Raja said, would allow for sustainable food production.
“By planting various trees [together with food and energy crops], our forests can provide food self-sufficiency through a very sustainable system,” he said at his office in Jakarta on Jan. 6.
Studies suggest agroforestry can help maintain tree cover and wildlife habitats; examples from places like Brazil suggest it can improve farmer livelihood and slow down forest loss. Agroforestry can also help maintain tree cover and wildlife habitat, particularly in regions where agriculture is a major driver of deforestation.
However, critics say that at the scale that the Indonesian government wants to expand its crop estate, agroforestry alone will be insufficient to prevent large-scale deforestation. Agroforestry only works if forest cover is retained, according to Herry Purnomo, a senior scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). If forests are cleared for crops, then even under an agroforestry system this loss of intact forests would contribute to biodiversity loss and emissions, he said.
“My hope is that intact forests are not cut down and replaced with rice fields,” Herry, who is also a professor at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), told Mongabay.
Secondary forests ‘not expendable’
A key uncertainty remains about the Ministry of Forestry’s plan: where are the 20 million hectares of forest it’s targeting for the food and biofuel crops?
The ministry has indicated it will prioritize abandoned or idle forestry concessions, known by the Indonesian acronym PBPH. These include selective logging concessions that the ministry says no longer contain primary forest.
Ade Tri Ajikusumah, head of the ministry’s planning department, said approximately 20 million hectares of Indonesia’s 37 million hectares (91 million acres) of forestry concessions are inactive.
“That’s what we use for agroforestry, so there’s no land clearing,” he told Mongabay.
Since these concessions have already been logged in the past, they no longer contain old-growth, or primary, forest, defined as forests that haven’t been damaged by human activity and thus are some of the densest and most ecologically significant forests on Earth, Ade said.
However, critics contend that even idle concessions can still contain significant forest cover. Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Sekar Banjaran Aji pointed out that there were still 18.9 million hectares (47 million acres) of natural forests within forestry concessions, including selective logging and industrial forest concessions, as of 2022.
“Nearly 20 million hectares of forestry concessions are still forested, which means there’s a high risk of deforestation” if those areas are then converted for the food and energy estates, she told Mongabay.
Selective logging concessions in particular typically have higher forest cover because companies only harvest timber from certain commercially valuable trees above a certain size, leaving much of the forest structure relatively undisturbed and allowing the logged forest to regenerate over time.
Ade said that even if the idle concessions are still forested, they’re likely to be forests that were previously logged and thus have been degraded, also known as secondary forest.
But not all secondary forests are heavily degraded, said Timer Manurung, director of Indonesian environmental NGO Auriga Nusantara. Many are still in good condition, with high carbon stock, lots of biodiversity, and still providing invaluable environmental services, he said.
“Secondary forests often have higher biodiversity than primary forests,” Timer told Mongabay. “Species like tigers, elephants and orangutans are abundant in these areas. The idea that secondary forests are expendable is a fatal misconception.”
Timer called on the government to protect all natural forests, including secondary forests within concessions, rather than differentiating them based on degradation status. He also called on the government to make it clear what criteria it uses to determine whether a concession is idle.
What crops?
Another question is what crops will be planted for the food and energy estates.
So far Raja has only mentioned rice and sugar palms as potential crops. Trend Asia’s Amalya said another likely candidate is oil palm, given that Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil. Past food estate programs also ended up planting oil palms, even though they were initially planned for rice, Amalya said.
Furthermore, Indonesia’s energy policy also promotes bioenergy, which focuses on palm oil-based biodiesel. Currently the country already uses the world’s highest proportion of palm oil in its biodiesel, and Prabowo has a plan to increase the blend with conventional diesel to 50%, known as B50, as early as this year.
But to produce enough palm oil to meet the B50 program need alone, the total planted area of oil palms will need to expand by up to three times the current size, which already covers 16 million hectares (40 million acres).
The potential inclusion of palm oil in the food and energy estate program has raised concerns among environmentalists, as oil palm plantations have historically been a significant driver of deforestation in the country. Over the past 20 years, these plantations accounted for one-third of Indonesia’s loss of old-growth forest — an area of 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres), or half the size of Belgium.
These concerns have been inflamed by recent comments from President Prabowo, who suggested that deforestation for palm oil expansion isn’t environmentally destructive.
“And I think in the future, we also need to plant more palm oil. We don’t need to be afraid of endangering — what’s it called — deforestation, right?” he said.
“Oil palms are trees, right? They have leaves, right?” he went on.
The expansion of palm oil for energy could spell disaster for Indonesia’s forests and contradict the country’s energy transition agenda to reduce emissions, Amalya said.
“The emissions from forest clearing, combined with those from burning palm oil for biofuel in transportation and biomass in power generation, will worsen the climate crisis,” she said. “In the energy sector, the government needs to revisit bioenergy policies, particularly those involving palm oil and wood-based feedstocks.”
Conflict risk
Besides deforestation risk, the plan to establish 20 million hectares of food and energy estates also poses a high risk of agrarian conflicts with local and Indigenous communities, Timer said.
The idle concessions identified by the Ministry of Forestry are likely to overlap with villages and areas already managed by communities, he said. “This will create conflicts with local communities.”
Amalya stressed the importance of completing forest boundary delineation to avoid such conflicts. As of December 2022, only 89% of Indonesia’s forest areas had been formally delineated. Without clear boundaries, the food and energy estate program could encroach on community lands or protected areas, Amalya said. As such, large-scale projects like this shouldn’t proceed until forest boundaries are fully delineated, she added.
Ade, whose department is in charge of the delineating process, acknowledged that delineation is a priority, adding that the physical mapping process is complete, with legal recognition pending.
Community involvement
Besides finishing the delineating process, the Ministry of Forestry will also include Indigenous and local communities in the food and energy estate plan through agroforestry to respect their rights, Ade said.
“We also need to collaborate with people through agroforestry and social forestry program [in establishing the food and energy estates],” he said.
Herry of CIFOR welcomed the inclusion of communities but questioned the feasibility at such a large scale.
“If the size [of the estates] is big, then the actors [involved] must be big as well,” Herry said. “How can communities manage 10,000 hectares [25,000 acres of land]? The ones who can manage 10,000 hectares are medium to large [corporations],” he said. This raises the risk of the government handing over management of these lands from communities to corporations, but Herry said the government has a duty to work with communities to build their capacity.
He and other experts agree that while agroforestry and community involvement are steps in the right direction, without robust safeguards, including transparency, the protection of all natural forests, clear boundary delineation and meaningful community participation, the program is bound to fail, much like previous food estate programs in Indonesia.
Alternative to crop expansion
In the mid-1990s, the government initiated a food estate project that sought to establish 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of rice plantations on peatlands across the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan to boost food security.
The project failed spectacularly, leaving behind a dried-out wasteland that burns on a large scale almost every year. Subsequent attempts to replicate the project in other regions, like the easternmost region of Papua, also ended in failure.
Given such high risks and a record of failures, parliament has urged the Ministry of Forestry to proceed carefully.
“The forestry minister should be cautious and not rush in making decisions. Do in-depth studies [first], invite academics and civil society in making a comprehensive plan where development is in line with forest conservation,” said Ahmad Yohan, a deputy head of the parliamentary commission that oversees environmental and agricultural issues. “Even if it’s for food and energy security, don’t sacrifice the forest.”
If the risks are too high, he said, the government should go back to the drawing board and seek other means of achieving food security without establishing new agricultural fields and clearing forests in the process.
For instance, the government could work with experts to increase the yield of existing agricultural fields through technology, Ahmad said. It could also improve farmers’ access to fertilizer, provide them with training, and modernize their agricultural equipment, he said.
“This way, achieving food security and self-sufficiency doesn’t require destroying forests to establish new plantations,” Ahmad said. “We can maximize the use of existing lands, improve the irrigation systems and the technology.”
Banner image: Forest near Rabia on the island of Waigeo in Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler/Mongabay.
Indonesia’s new president, former disgraced general Prabowo Subianto, is making an awkward discovery: gaining respect in the international community as head of a nation of 280 million civilians is not the same as ordering a special squad to intimidate.
You can’t force the masses to grow more food, work smarter and change habits – then expect no blow-back from the rest of the world if your policies endanger all.
Like Donald Trump promoting hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as unverified COVID-19 cures, Prabowo suffers from the dictator’s delusion – that a ballot-box win (58%) turns a politician into a seer refuting established science.
At the end of December, he reportedly told delegates to a national development congress in Jakarta that more jungle should be cleared for palm oil plantations. The address was broadcast:
“We don’t need to be afraid of endangering — what’s it called — deforestation, right?
“Oil palms are trees, right? They have leaves, right? They produce oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide. So why are we being accused (of deforestation)? Those things they say (about deforestation) don’t make any sense.”
Although there have been no threats against the existing plantations (how do foreign powers seize palms?), Prabowo has sprayed the zone with paranoia. His favourite colour is khaki, not green.
He’s ordered the military, the police and regional officials “to enhance security measures around palm oil plantations throughout Indonesia” because he reckons Indonesia’s palm oil commodities are being targeted.
“They (unspecified) really need our palm oil. It turns out that palm oil is a strategic material,” Prabowo told the planning meeting. That’s not news – it has been an internationally important commodity for decades.
The British-based Gecko Project which claims to be a non-profit news agency tracing land use, reports that Prabowo’s net worth is US$133 million:
“In media profiles, he is reported as owning multiple companies involved in coal mining, forestry and other sectors …at a campaign event in January, he took a rival to task for underestimating the scale of the land over which he presides. “It’s not 340,000 hectares, it’s closer to 500,000 hectares.”
Fears of foreigners taking jobs, land and lifestyles is a standard theme in right-wing politicians’ playbooks almost everywhere – think Peter Dutton’s 2018 African gang violence comments keeping Victorians housebound.
In reality, Prabowo’s thundering is not about an armed invasion by 1.6 million fat gut Ozzies taking a break from boozing in Bali, but an economic assault. China has major stakes in nickel mines and smelters in Sulawesi and has lent the Republic more than US$27 billion so far.
Oil palms store carbon ineffectively, according to Dr Herry Purnomo, a professor at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture: “Forests store around 300 tons of CO2 per hectare, ten times more than oil palm plantations.”
Indonesia is the world’s top producer of palm oil used for cooking, cosmetics, jet fuel and industry. The archipelago has 17.3 million hectares of plantations.
The total size of Java, the most heavily populated island in the archipelago, is 13.2 million hectares.
Millions of square kilometres of the country’s richly diverse jungles have been cleared in recent decades. Sumatra has lost 80% of its forest cover, and Kalimantan about 50%. Your correspondent has travelled vast distances of horizon-to-horizon monoculture in East Kalimantan.
By December, Indonesian exports will be hit by the European Union’s anti-deforestation regulations if endorsed by the European Council.
Prabowo’s comments can be seen as an attempt to arouse local hostilities to the new law that “requires companies to demonstrate their products aren’t sourced to deforested land or land with forest degradation”.
In 2019, President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo issued a permanent moratorium on forest clearance for palm plantations and logging. It had little effect.
In 2023, it was reported that 30,000 hectares of pristine jungle had been bulldozed and burned for plantations, up from 22,000 hectares the previous year. Smoke pollution has infuriated nearby Malaysia and Singapore.
It’s not just the greenies getting stressed – investors with consciences are also turning twitchy. One international group claimed forest cover loss “significantly impacts the environment, biodiversity, and local communities. Deforestation leads to soil erosion (and) fertility”.
“The country is home to many endangered species, such as orangutans, tigers, and elephants. The loss of forests and habitat destruction threaten these species’ survival.
“(Clearing) also affects the livelihoods of local communities that rely on forests for food, medicine, and income.” In 2018, the Indonesian Ombudsman received more than 1000 complaints from communities, including indigenous people, against palm oil companies.
Felling threatens 193 species listed by the Switzerland-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature. These widely reported concerns appear to have ricochetted off Prabowo and left his plans to clear, grow and export largely unharmed, apart from sniping by NGOs.
Uli Arta Siagian from Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (Indonesian Forum for the Environment), founded in 1980, told the Straits Times that “the police and military in Indonesia had tended to side with palm oil companies embroiled in conflict with the local communities, and often used intimidation and violence against them”.
“What’s surprising is that the statement of palm oil not causing deforestation because it has leaves, was made by the president, who should have spoken based on science, knowledge, research and facts.”
But when you run the world’s fourth-largest nation and your devious reasoning gets reported by a largely supine media, why bother referencing sources?
Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia. Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.
United Liberation Movement for West Papua provisional government interim president Benny Wenda warns that since Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto took office in October, he’s been proven right in having remarked, after the politician’s last February election, that his coming marks the return of “the ghost of Suharto”: the brutal dictator who ruled over the nation for three decades.
Wenda, an exiled West Papuan leader, outlined in a 16 December statement that at that moment the Indonesian forces were carrying out ethnic cleansing in multiple regencies, as thousands of West Papuans were being forced out of their villages and into the bush by soldiers.
Prabowo coming to top office has a particular foreboding for the West Papuans, who’ve been occupied by Indonesia since 1963, as over his military career – which spanned from 1970 to 1998 and saw rise him to the position of general, as well as mainly serve in Kopassus (special forces) – the current president perpetrated multiple alleged atrocities across East Timor and West Papua.
According to Wenda, the incumbent Indonesian president can “never clean the blood from his hands for his crimes as a general in West Papua and East Timor” and he further makes clear that Prabowo’s acts since taking office reveal that he is set on “creating a new regime of brutality” in the country of his birth.
Enhancing the occupation
“Foreign governments should not be fooled by Prabowo’s PR campaign,” Wenda made certain in mid-December. “He is desperately seeking international legitimacy through his international tour, empty environmental pledges and the amnesty offered to various prisoners, including eighteen West Papuans and the remaining imprisoned members of the Bali Nine.”
Former Indonesian president Suharto ruled over the Southeast Asian nation with an iron fist from 1967 until 1998.
In the years prior to his officially taking office, General Suharto oversaw the mass murder of up to 1 million local Communists, he further rigged the 1969 referendum on self-determination for West Papua, so it failed and he invaded East Timor in 1975.
Wenda maintains that the proof Prabowo is something of an apparition of Suharto is that he’s set about forging “mass displacement, increased militarisation” and “increased deforestation” in the Melanesian region of West Papua. And he’s further restarted the transmigration program of the Suharto days, which involves Indonesians being moved to West Papua to populate the region.
Wenda considers the “occupation was entering a new phase”, when former Indonesian president Joko Widodo split the region of West Papua into five provinces in mid-2022. And the West Papuan leader advises that Prabowo is set to establish separate military commands in each province, which will provide “a new, more thorough and far-reaching system of occupation”.
West Papua was previously split into two regions, which the West Papuan people did not recognise, as these and the current five provinces are actually Indonesian administrative zones.
“By establishing new administrative divisions, Indonesia creates the pretext for new military posts and checkpoints,” Wenda underscores. “The result is the deployment of thousands more soldiers, curfews, arbitrary arrests and human rights abuses. West Papua is under martial law.”
Ecocide on a formidable scale
Prabowo paid his first official visit to West Papua as president in November, visiting the Merauke district in South Papua province, which is the site of the world’s largest deforestation project, with clearing beginning in mid-2024, and it will eventually comprise of 2 million deforested hectares turned into giant sugarcane plantations, via the destruction of forests, wetlands and grasslands.
Five consortiums, including Indonesian and foreign companies, are involved in the project, with the first seedlings having been planted in July. And despite promises that the megaproject would not harm existing forests, these areas are being torn down regardless. And part of this deforestation includes the razing of forest that had previously been declared protected by the government.
A similar program was established in Merauke district in 2011, by Widodo’s predecessor president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who established rice and sugarcane plantations in the region, aiming to turn it into a “future breadbasket for Indonesia”. However, the plan was a failure, and the project was rather used as a cover to establish hazardous palm oil and pulpwood plantations.
“It is not a coincidence Prabowo has announced a new transmigration program at the same time as their ecocidal deforestation regime intensifies,” Wenda said in a November 2024 statement. “These twin agenda represent the two sides of Indonesian colonialism in West Papua: exploitation and settlement.”
Wenda added that Jakarta is only interested in West Papuan land and resources, and in exchange, Indonesia has killed at least half a million West Papuans since 1963. And while the occupying nation is funding other projects via the profits it’s been making on West Papuan palm oil, gold and natural gas, the West Papuan provinces are the poorest in the Southeast Asian nation.
Independence is still key
The 1962 New York Agreement involved the Netherlands, West Papua’s former colonial rulers, signing over the region to Indonesia. A brief United Nations administrative period was to be followed by Jakarta assuming control of the region on 1 May 1963. And part of the agreement was that West Papuans undertake the Act of Free Choice, or a 1969 referendum on self-determination.
So, if the West Papuans didn’t vote to become an autonomous nation, then Indonesian administration would continue.
However, the UN brokered referendum is now referred to as the Act of No Choice, as it only involved 1,026 West Papuans, handpicked by Indonesia. And under threat of violence, all of these men voted to stick with their colonial oppressors.
Wenda presented The People’s Petition to the UN Human Rights High Commissioner in January 2019, which calls for a new internationally supervised vote on self-determination for the people of West Papua, and it included the signatures of 1.8 million West Papuans, or 70 percent of the Indigenous population.
The exiled West Papuan leader further announced the formation of the West Papua provisional government on 1 December 2020, which involved the establishment of entire departments of government with heads of staff appointed on the ground in the Melanesian province, and Wenda was also named the president of the body.
But with the coming of Prabowo and the recent developments in West Papua, it appears the West Papuan struggle is about to intensify at the same time as the movement for independence becomes increasingly more prominent on the global stage.
“Every element of West Papua is being systematically destroyed: our land, our people, our Melanesian culture identity,” Wenda said in November, in response to the recommencement of Indonesia’s transmigration program and the massive environment devastation in Merauke.
“This is why it is not enough to speak about the Act of No Choice in 1969: the violation of our self-determination is continuous, renewed with every new settlement program, police crackdown, or ecocidal development.”
Australia West Papua Association Adelaide 