PENANG, Malaysia – PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) joins our partners in Indonesia in condemning the continuing brutal violence and intimidation that palm oil plantations’ security forces are unleashing on the Indigenous Sakai in Indonesia.
The latest incident happened on 9 July 2026 when four young Sakai men were harassed while crossing a public road near the PT Ivo Mas Tunggal plantation, part of the Sinar Mas Group. One of them, 21‑year‑old Ariya, was dragged and beaten by 17 uniformed personnel, leaving him with severe injuries and his motorbike destroyed. This assault is the latest incident in a long and deliberate campaign of violent attacks against the Sakai people, whose ancestral lands have been systematically grabbed and occupied by palm oil corporations.
There is a clear and consistent pattern of violence being perpetrated by palm oil companies designed to crush resistance and entrench corporate control over 6,500 hectares of customary land that rightfully belong to the Sakai people. Several cases of attacks against the Sakai people committed by hired thugs and security personnel of palm oil companies have been reported in the past, but the violence continues.
These assaults on the Sakai people illustrate the unabated and worsening human rights violations and atrocities amid land and resource grabbing across Asia. With impunity, corporations dispossess Indigenous Peoples, farmers, and rural communities in the name of profit. Driven by global demand, palm oil expansion has become synonymous with violence, ecological destruction, and the erosion of food sovereignty.
We support the demands of our partners in Indonesia for justice for the Sakai people and accountability not just from the palm oil companies and direct perpetrators, but also from the government for its apparent failure to stop the attacks. We echo their call to respect the rights of the Sakai people to their ancestral lands and to live peacefully and securely in their communities.
Reference: Sarojeni Rengam, Executive Director, sarojeni.rengam@panap.net
