Amungme Tribe

The wealth of Nature; the Mount of the Amungme Tribe Society.

Amungme is Melanesian group consisted of 13,000 people living in the highlands of Papua province of Indonesia. They run a farm run by hunting and gathering add to it. Amungme very attached to their ancestral lands and assume around the sacred mountain. Mountain made ​​of gold and copper mining center by PT. Freeport Indonesia is in the glorious holy mountain glorified by the Amungme, with the name Nemang Kawi. Nemang means Kawi arrows and holy meaning. Nemang Kawi means a holy arrow (free of war] peace. Amungme area called Amungsa.

This has caused friction with the government of Indonesia, who want to utilize an extensive supply of minerals found in the vicinity. The biggest problem facing the Amungme is the large number of mines, owned by the United States and United Kingdom, located in the central region Amungme. Gold and copper mining massive ruined landscape and led to many protests, which have been widely suppressed with violence by the Indonesian military.

The Amungme tribe: the owner of hak ulayat

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The Amungme Tribe Society are the native inhabitants around the mining site of PT Freeport Indonesia in Tembagapura area for generations. Amungme Tribe is the owner of hak ulayat, and is acknowledged according to the Ordinance No. 5 of 1960 about the Agrarian matters. It cannot be denied and is a reality, that the Amungme Tribe had occupied for generations, the area around Waa Valley, that, Amungme Tribe the moment, become the mining area of gold and copper of PT Freeport Indonesia.

The Amungme Tribe Society, as a part of Indonesian Nation, and the owner of hak ulayat, ought to and deserve to get a prosperous life and should be protected and guaranteed by the State in relation with the basic rights according to the Article 33 verse 3 of the 1945 Constitution, "The land and water and the natural wealth in it, are controlled by the State and used to the utmost prosperity of the people," where its meaning is clarified by article 6 of the Agrarian Act, "All the rights upon the land have social function."

This stipulation has an understanding, that the using or management of the land must pay attention to the interest of the society. In this case, the management and the using of the community land of Amungme Tribe, done by any corporate body or enterprise, must pay attention to and may not harm, the interest of the Amungme Tribe, as the owner of hak ulayat.

In the same manner as the article 3 of Agrarian Act, "In view of the stipulations of article 1 and 2, the implementations of hak ulayat and the similar rights of the societies, the Traditional Law – as long as in it still exists – must be done in such a way that it is in accord with the interest of the National and the State, based on the unity of the Nation, and may not be in contradiction with the higher laws and acts." Therefore, the hak ulayat of the Amungme Tribe must be respected and valued as a hereditary rights.