MERAUKE — Agrarian conflict heats up again in the land of South Papua. MNM Company (PT Murni Nusantara Mandiri) is reported to continue to carry out land grabbing efforts belonging to the Kwipalo Clan located in Muchikai Hamlet, Jagebob District, Merauke Regency, South Papua Province.
This unilateral action of the company triggers fierce resistance from the local indigenous people who try to defend their ancestral land from the grip of the National Strategic Project (PSN).
On Friday, May 15, 2026, the situation on the ground was tense when the company side deployed heavy equipment to carry out land clearing.
The customary rights owner, Mr. Vincen Kwipalo, along with his big family went directly down to the conflict location to block the forward movement of two units of excavators and one unit of operational car that brought the company employees.
The blocking action was recorded clearly in the circulating video and photo documentation, showing how the indigenous people stood upright in front of the heavy equipment in order to guard their customary territory from eviction.
This struggle is assessed not as just an ordinary land conflict, but a systematic clash between civil society against corporate octopus that shields behind the top-down policy of the central government.
"The struggle against Indonesian colonial with this PSN is a struggle facing systematic corporation," emphasized the representative of the local indigenous people.
The Kwipalo Clan indigenous people also convey an open and urgent call to all elements of solidarity, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as environmental lovers in various parts of the world. They hope the international public and humanitarian activists can see directly the suffering and injustice that is happening to the indigenous Papuan people in Jagebob District who continue to be marginalized by the flow of investment.
Meanwhile, TPNPB states full support toward all forms of people's resistance over the deprivation of customary land that occurs in Merauke.
TPNPB emphasizes that natural exploitation on the land of Papua under the pretext of national development is a form of oppression that must be fought. ***