Indonesian palm oil firm clashes with villagers it allegedly shortchanged
By Hans Nicholas Jong JAKARTA — A dispute simmering for years has erupted into conflict between villagers and a palm oil company on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi over the latter’s failure to abide by a profit-sharing scheme. At least nine villagers in Buol district and one worker from plantation company PT Hardaya Inti Plantations (HIP) were injured in clashes on May 7 and 10 that began as protests. The villagers had since the start of the year formally objected to HIP harvesting palm fruit from the trees that the company was cultivating on the villagers’ land, noting that they hadn’t been...