[STATEMENT] Environmental Defenders Demand an End to Violent Crackdowns on Indonesian Protesters

The Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders (APNED) stands in solidarity with the outraged peoples of Indonesia who are exercising their right to protest against the widespread corruption and anti-people policies of the Prabowo administration and sounds the call for environmental defenders to condemn and call for the end of the violent crackdown that the Prabowo administration has unleashed on Indonesian protesters.

The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) has affirmed that the right to protest is a universal human right. Civil society organizations also recognize the value of protests as a way to promote and assert advocacy, especially inside systems where appeals for systemic reform often fall on the deaf ears of policymakers, corporations, and financial institutions.

Protests, especially those at the scale of what is happening in Indonesia, do not happen just because. They are manifestations of widespread outrage and willingness to act against oppression and injustice. People are merely expressing their reaction to the lavish allowances given to legislators, while prices and taxes for the common people in Indonesia continue to increase, all while waves of layoffs continue to cause unemployment.  Land grabbing has also become rampant, which has caused the eviction of peasants from their communities and facilitated destructive resource extraction.

States and state actors, however, usually respond to protests with violence and vilification, affirming their loyalty to the unjust status quo. This is what we have seen in Indonesia, with the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission reporting the arrests of 951 protesters in Jakarta alone. Prabowo has also instructed the Indonesian police force and military to crack down on “treasonous” and “terrorist” elements, which gives them free rein to wreak havoc on the Indonesian masses, provided that they tag them as traitors and terrorists first, even without ample evidence. In Kebon Sayur and Sukahaji, people have been arrested due to their fight against forced evictions, while peasant communities in South Sulawesi face police brutality.

Environmental defenders are no strangers to state violence; it is a constant element in our struggle against environmental destruction. We know that in a working democracy, there is no place for the use of suppressive violence to silence the sincere demands of the people. Therefore, we call on fellow environmental defenders all over the Asia Pacific to support the Indonesian peoples’ exercise of their right to protest and condemn the current fascist response of the Prabowo administration to these protests. Instead of attacks, what the Indonesian people deserve is to have their demands heard and met.

Affirm the Indonesian people’s right to protest!

End the Prabowo administration’s violent crackdown against Indonesian protesters!