Front Line Defenders Global Analysis report notes May 2024 attack against People’s Water Forum in Indonesia
Photo: “The People’s Water Forum (PWF) in Bali again experienced intimidation and forced dissolution by dozens of masses of the Garuda Nusantara Patriot Organization (PGN) on Monday, May 20, 2024. Photo: KRUHA”
The just-released Front Line Defenders GLOBAL ANALYSIS 2024/25 report notes: “The People’s Water Forum (PWF), which took place on the sidelines of the World Water Forum in Indonesia in May, was targeted by groups of masked men who acted with impunity. On 20 May, a PWF press conference was disrupted and HRDs attending were attacked. The following day, around 50 masked individuals imposed a blockade on the hotel where the PWF participants were staying, which lasted for three days. The U.N Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation attempted to enter the hotel but was prevented from doing so, intimidated and shoved. When he raised the issue of the blockade with a group of nearby police officers, he was told that “they could not intervene because the hotel entrance was in the hands of the civilians.” In the months following the PWF, Indonesian HRDs who attended continued to be subjected to intimidation and threats.”
Carleton University professor and PBI-Canada Board member Meera Karunananthan, who was at the People’s Water Forum with the Blue Planet Project, comments: “The intimidation of water defenders in Bali was not simply the act of a fringe paramilitary group. It was part of a coordinated effort that involved the Indonesian government and the World Water Council. We know from investigative media reports since the meeting in Bali that the repression was prompted by the World Water Council’s private conversations with members of the Indonesian government. Our venues were canceled. Many of us were interrogated at the airport when we landed in Bali, then surveilled at our hotel and followed by individuals we believe were part of Indonesian secret service. Every effort was made to prevent the PWF from meeting, sharing ideas and voicing our opposition to water privatization and the corporate control of water. We are alarmed by reports that comrades in Indonesia continue to face harassment and repression a year later.”
Video by Karunananthan: “Pedro Arrojo, UN Special Rapporteur, Rights to Water & Sanitation, threatened & assaulted in Bali” May 21, 2024.
Background
A year ago, on May 21, 2024, the People’s Water Forum highlighted: “We are deeply concerned by the attacks on local organizers, academics and academic institutions that has led to the cancellation and disruption of People’s Water Forum sessions over the last few days. A press conference that took place on the afternoon of May 20 was violently disrupted by a masked group supported by the Patriot Garuda Nusantara (PGN), a sort of paramilitary force. Posters, billboards and banners of the PWF were torn down, while many local attendees were pushed and threatened.”
Photo: Attack and dissolution of People’s Water Forum (PWF) activities.
Public Services International (PSI) also commented: “The government of Indonesia, no doubt prompted by the concerns of the World Water Council, has unfolded the full panoply of repressive tools to ensure that the local and global water justice movements are unable to meet. In doing so, the government has succeeded in drawing even more attention to the existence of our movements and our concerns.”
Some of the actions of the Indonesian government specified by Public Services International included: “Once the People’s Water Forum meetings started, having found a meeting venue and lodging, a paramilitary group known as Patriot Garuda Nusantara (PGN) invaded the press conference, violently tore banners down, shut off electricity in the meeting room and effectively blocked the press conference.”
PSI then noted: “This same group invaded the hotel where 40 Indonesian social movements were housed, confined them to the premises and blocked all access to them, including deliveries of food. Pedro Arrojo, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation arrived at the hotel, he was met by a cordon of police officers. When Pedro showed his UN passport, the head of the police cordon indicated that he should speak to what appears to be a group of the PGN. Pedro was denied entry and forcibly ejected from the premises of the hotel which was effectively under blockade.”
An attack on peaceful assembly
At the time of the incident, Antara reported: “Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Minister Basuki Hadimuljono … said that he had coordinated with president of the World Water Council (WWC), Loic Fauchon, regarding the arrival of the participants of the People’s Water Forum. ‘I have consulted with him (Fauchon). We then decided to let them enter Indonesia,’ he revealed. He said that the WWC president, however, advised the Indonesian government to monitor the participants to ensure that they do not commit any acts that might provoke local residents.”
The Executive Director of Amnesty International Indonesia, Usman Hamid, concluded: “The intimidation and violent attack on the organizers and participants of the People’s Water Forum is a serious attack on a peaceful assembly. The repeated repression of government critics raises serious concerns about the Indonesian authorities’ commitment to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”
Global Witness has documented that at least 20 land and environmental defenders were killed in Indonesia between 2012 and 2023. The newly-released Front Line Defenders Global Analysis report notes that at least three human rights defenders – Arbaini, Rico Sempurna Pasaribu and Russel – were killed in Indonesia in 2024.
For more about the Peace Brigades International-Indonesia Project, click here.
Further reading: UN Special Rapporteur calls for a stop to the criminalization of water defenders opposed to megaprojects in Canada (September 16, 2024)
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