The Fight Is Not Yet Over
Aleta Baun
Aleta Baun, 54, does not feel that her task is any easier since she received the Yap Thiam Hien human rights award in 2016. The lady who has worked for years leading the fight against environmental destruction in South Central Timor regency, East Nusa Tenggara, feels that her fight is not yet over.
“The mines have torn apart the sacred Nausus stone mountains, the mother of all local stone mountains where our family names come from. We cannot just stay quiet,” Aleta said when receiving the award in Jakarta on Jan. 25.
Nowadays, Aleta has begun to see the results of her struggles. A number of companies involved in damaging the environment at the sacred stone mountains have left the regency. However, she said that she needed to work harder to protect the environment.
She still has a big agenda, namely empowering the indigenous people in Flores and Sumba. Customary institutions have been established, but the involvement of locals in protecting the environment and their rights is still poor.
“I will visit the two islands in March and April. I will gather the indigenous people, consolidate them and provide them with the understanding that they can be involved in protecting their environment,” Aleta said in an interview in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Friday (10/2).
The Yap Thiam Hien award has not made Aleta complacent. The woman from Lelobatan, Timor island, said that it had driven her to gather more people and continue her fight for environmental protection. “East Nusa Tenggara is barren, dry and rocky. I will continue to move forward with the life that I have left in me and I need support from as many people as possible,” she said.
The beginning of the struggle
Aleta Baun’s name is familiar among the people in East Nusa Tenggara. Many affectionately call her Mama, a name usually reserved for soldiers, nurses, protectors and rescuers.
The lady first gained national fame in 2006 as a fighter for environmental protection and indigenous people’s rights in Mollo, North Mollo and South Mollo districts in South Central Timor regency. Back then, she saw a 750-meter stone mountain in Tunue village, North Mollo district, destroyed by the mining companies’ heavy equipment. The mountain was sacred to the locals and the Tunue people often took offerings for their ancestors there.
Aleta, who had learned to love the environment when she was just a small girl, was furious. She reported the destruction to the Tunue village head but was accused of obstructing the government’s development programs. People then threatened to report her to the authorities.
Unafraid, Aleta gathered some 20 ladies from her home village of Lelobatan and another 15 from Tunue. They protested by weaving in the gaps between the stone pillars in the former quarry for one year, between May 2006 and April 2007. Because of this, two marble-mining companies in Tunue village were forced to cease their operations.
The ladies’ protest did not stop there. When Aleta heard that a stone mountain in Fatumnasi village, 10 kilometers from Tunue, would be exploited by mining companies, she acted. She fearlessly stood in front of the heavy equipment that was supposed to dredge the foothills.
“I just stood there until a security official from the company, a local man, pulled me out of the project site. Nevertheless, I refused to stop fighting,” she said.
She deployed seven ladies from Fatumnasi village to be with her in subsequent protests. They brought local women and children and opened farms around the stone mountain. The seven ladies then wrote a petition rejecting the mine in Fatumnasi. However, all of them later pulled out, leaving Aleta alone.
Chased by terror
In mid-2007, Aleta was taken to court accused of obstructing development. She faced threats and intimidation from the authorities when she was questioned at the local police precinct and faced trial at Soe district court.
After hearing the testimony of a number of witnesses, including the customary leaders and indigenous people in Tunue and Fatumnasi, the panel of judges in the district court found Alena not guilty. Even after she gained her freedom, she still received threats and was intimidated.
Aleta sued the regent of Soe in retaliation but this was rejected by the Soe district court. Her house in Soe was attacked and her life continued to be threatened.
Aleta sent her three children and her husband to a family home in Soe for safety and hid herself in local people’s homes in North Mollo and South Mollo villages and in Mollo district. She moved house every night.
In hiding, Aleta met with the indigenous people. She taught them the importance of the stone mountains and the forests at the foothill of Mt. Mutis for their sustainability.
“Mt. Mutis must be saved. The soil symbolizes our flesh, the stones our bones, the water our blood, the plants in the jungle our hair and clothes. The stone mountain is an altar where the god of the sky comes down and brings messages to our ancestors and customary leaders,” Aleta said.
Her persistence had good results. The local people agreed to work together to drive away the environmentally destructive companies. In 2008-2009, two manganese mining companies left the region. In 2010, two marble mining companies left South Central Timor.
Aleta’s continuous fight was recognized by national and international environmental and human rights organizations. In 2013, she won the Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco and got the chance to talk with US President Barack Obama. Aleta then won the 2016 Yap Thiam Hien award for human rights activism in January 2017.
The Yap Thiam Hien award jury said that they appreciated the peaceful protests initiated by Aleta in one of the driest regions in the nation. Her activities are also deeply rooted in local wisdom.
“Aleta’s struggles to protect environmental rights and indigenous people’s rights have been monumental in Mollo. The forest, mountain, rivers and land are within the customary rights of the Mollo people, who have acknowledged and enjoyed them for generations,” Yap Thiam Hien foundation head Todung Mulya Lubis said in Jakarta.
Aleta said that she was grateful for the award. It reaffirmed her belief that what she had been struggling for was righteous. However, the fight was not yet over. Her next challenge was how to restore the damaged environment and develop a sustainable economy for the local people’s welfare.
