Indigenous West Papuans claim Indonesian government is 'land grabbing'

West Papuans in Merauke claim the Indonesian government is stealing land to build its global "food barn" and feed its population of 280 million.

Indonesia denies this and says all transactions are lawful.

President Prabowo Subianto's administration wants Indonesia to be able to feed its population without imports as early as 2028, with the greater goal of exporting food.

To get there, Indonesia plans to convert millions of hectares into farmland.

Wensi Fatubun, from Merauke in Indonesian-occupied Papua close to Papua New Guinea's border, said forests where he grew up are being cleared.

"[The] Indonesian government took the land for the [food] security project, it was not consulted or consented by Indigenous Papuan," Fatubun said.

Prabowo's goal is a continuation of his predecessors.

In 2020, President Joko Widodo announced the establishment of a national food estate project which aimed at opening up new areas of farmland outside Java Island.

It is similar to the failed Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate, spearheaded by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2010.

About 1.3 million hectares were set aside in Merauke for it: half for food crops, 30 percent sugar cane, and 20 percent for palm.

A report from the United States Department of Agriculture said it encountered resistance from locals and legal challenges.

"Approximately 90 percent of the targeted areas were forest, which provided a source of livelihood for many locals. Accordingly, the development plans became a flashpoint for local activists concerned about environmental and biodiversity impacts," the report said.

Probowo's government has the more ambitious goal of opening up three million hectares of agricultural land in Merauke - two million for rice and one million for sugarcane.

Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said President Prabowo had elevated the "so-called food security issue".

"[The President] wants Merauke in West Papua to be the so called national food barn. This deforestation land grabbing is much more deeper in Merauke than in the past."

Harsono said conflict had escalated in West Papua and is now on par with some of the most violent periods in the past 60 years, but he was not sure if it is connected to the President's focus on food security.

BenarNews reported that about 2000 troops were deployed late last year in Merauke to provide security at a two-million-hectare food plantation.

Rosa Moiwend, from Merauke, said the soldiers work alongside farmers.

"They are expected to teach local farmers how to use mechanical agriculture equipment," Moiwend said.

"But as West Papuan people, the presence of the military in the middle of the community, watching communities activities, people's movement when they travel from one place to another, actually creates fear among the people in Merauke."

Like Harsono and Fatubun, Moiwend said "land grabs" are happening.

However, she said it still involves a land broker, which creates a facade of a fair procedure.

"Indigenous Merauke, indigenous Marind people like myself and my people, we do not sell land because land belongs to the community. It is communal land."

However, a spokesperson for Indonesia's Embassy in Wellington said all processes and steps involving land sales had been lawful "always respecting the inclinations of local tribes".

"Its development always involving local authorities, especially chief tribes for the consent of their ulayat (traditional land)," they said.

"There is no land grab without consent, and the government also working on the biodiversity conservation and forestry production to create space harmonisation model with Conservation International, Medco Group, and couple of other independent organisations."

'They are stripping communities' - campaigner

West Papua Action Aotearoa spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said the region is part of the lungs of the Pacific, which is now being destroyed.

"The plan has been around for a long time but it seems to have escalated under Prabowo," Delahunty said.

"They are stripping those lands and stripping those communities who live there from their traditional foods such as the sago palm to turn the whole of Merauke into sugar cane, rice and palm plantations.

"The effects have been massive and they're just getting worse."

She said New Zealand and Australia - the two most powerful governments in the South Pacific - are failing in its obligations to the citizens of West Papua.

"You could almost justify, because it's a long way away from other parts of the world, that Europe and the northern hemisphere don't really understand West Papua but there's no excuse for us.

"These people are in our region but they're not white people. I think there's a huge element of racism towards Papuans and towards Pacific nations who aren't perceived as important in the western worldview."

She said there was willingness to trade and New Zealand did not want to rock the boat, with Indonesia as a regional powerhouse.

That coupled with a media blackout makes it easy for Indonesia to act with impunity, Delahunty said.