JAKARTA - The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has highlighted the involvement of the police in a number of agrarian conflicts reported by the community, as land dispute complaints in various regions are still high.
Commissioner for Research and Studies of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Uli Parulian Sihombing said his agency received around 600 complaints involving the police institution as the party complained about in the period 2023-2025.
"The period 2023-2025 has about 600 cases, where the police institution is the party complained about. This is only what has been complained about, not all of them have been handled by Komnas HAM," said Uli in a presentation of the agrarian conflict study reported by ANTARA, Monday, March 9.
Of this number, approximately 160 complaints specifically relate to agrarian conflicts or natural resource disputes involving the police throughout 2020-2024.
Overall, Komnas HAM recorded 3,264 complaints of agrarian conflicts that fell within the period 2020-2025.
The most cases are related to the land sector with 133 cases, followed by conflicts in the plantation, forestry, and national strategic projects sectors.
According to Uli, the position of the police in agrarian conflicts is often at the final stage or "the downstream of the conflict", namely dealing with the criminal impact that arises after land disputes occur in the field.
"So, the police are downstream, handling the sentence, while the structural conflict upstream is at a stalemate," he said.
He explained that agrarian conflicts in Indonesia are generally triggered by inequality in the power relationship between the state, corporations, and society, including overlapping concession permits and clashes between hereditary land ownership and formal legality such as certificates or business rights (HGU).
In a number of complaints, Komnas HAM also noted allegations of excessive use of force, intimidation practices, forced eviction, and the criminalization of people who defend their living space.
"This is a dispute that is substantially in the civil and administrative realm and is often forced into the criminal realm," said Uli.
Therefore, Komnas HAM stated that the handling of agrarian conflicts should prioritize settlement through the civil or administrative route first, while the enforcement of criminal law should be the ultimate remedy or last resort after the land ownership status is clear.
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