“Don’t get too close, stay a few meters away”, advises Ircan in a calm voice, put him away, putting one hand on his shoulder and holding in the other a long stick with a fork at its end. In his native language ata modo, he exchanges a few words with his colleague who has approached the two huge giant monitor lizards more than two meters long, perfectly motionless, sprawled on the white sand beach of Loh Liang. “They don’t sleep. They watch »he says.
We still have the blood that freezes, knowing that they can attack in a fraction of a second, run at more than 20 km / hour, bite you with their teeth sips of a deadly poison which paralyzes you in a few minutes and you terrace. The Komodo dragons, kings of this island of the same name, can then feast and… go hunting again.
The Ata Modo, “twin brothers” of the dragons
A troubling question, however, remains. Why don’t these two rangers of the ata modo ethnic group, the original people of the island since the dawn of time, fear these murderous lizards? “No, they’re not going to attack us. And no, we’re not afraidexplains one of them with a smile. Dragons recognize us by hearing, when we speak our language. They know perfectly how to distinguish it from yours. »“We will never harm the dragons in any way, nor will they attack us,” he adds.
Lively but still a little fearful, this baby dragon from Komodo in Indonesia ????????, just as dangerous as adults. Running at 20km/h, bites you and paralyzes you with the poison contained in its teeth. Deadly. @The crosshttps://t.co/7ITEovolkcpic.twitter.com/af85yP8kzS
— Dorian Malovic (@dorianmalovic) March 1, 2023
In all seriousness, he adds: “We are brothers bound by distant blood ties. We don’t call them “dragon” but “sebae”. We are twins. » The living myth of the Komodo dragon, classified as an endangered species since 2021, suddenly takes on a dizzying… human dimension.
1980, first eviction of residents
A few meters from the beach, in the shade of palm trees, Caïa, 51, runs a tavern where she serves rice and noodle dishes to tourists who arrive every day for “to see dragons”. It’s the rainy season, “the low tourist season at the moment”, she adds, pointing to a handful of small boats moored on the pontoon at Loh Liang, a place that marks the official entrance to the Komodo Island Park.
A sea of turquoise oil, white sand, palm trees with large leaves floating in the wind… A real exotic postcard of life in the tropics. But who could imagine that in this idyllic place a human tragedy took place that upset the life of the Ata Modo in 1980?
“It was under the regime of General Suhartosays Caïa. I remember very well when the police and the military landed in Loh Liang. » By creating the Komodo National Park in 1980, the central government had decided to expel all the Ata Modo from their lands, scattered all over the island, and to group them together by the sea in the “village of Komodo”. . With prohibition to cultivate the ground.
Caïa’s face lights up, recalling her childhood memories. “We grew rice, tamarind, coconuts, avocados… and the men went hunting to kill deer or birds. » No family then failed to share the meat of the animals killed with the sebae, who came to feast on it near the dwellings. “We also gave them our chickens or our goats,” she continues in the simplest way possible.
An Indonesian Jurassic Park
No story on this island can ignore the dragons, omnipresent in the collective memory and whose fate seems very uncertain. Because the idea of a national park launched in 1980, by emptying the island of its inhabitants to park them aside, has taken in recent years a new turn much more nightmarish.
“The government of Jakarta wants to transform the Komodo National Park into an economic development zone”, denounces Fernand Venan, 32, researcher and sociologist with the NGO Sunspirit for Justice and Peace, which has been involved for years alongside the local communities of Komodo and the island of Florès. “Under the guise of preserving the natural site and the dragon, the government wants to expel the entire Ata Modo population and relocate them to another island, somewhere, without any precision on the final location”is indignant this former seminarian, very committed, who studied at the University of Jakarta.
This decision is part of an Indonesia-wide tourism development policy launched by President Joko Widodo, nicknamed Jokowi, in 2019. The following year, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, Komodo National Park , listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its surroundings, have been designated, by presidential decree, “strategic tourist area”.
Jakarta wants to make it a kind of Indonesian Jurassic Park. “In the eyes of Jakarta, adds Fernand Venan, whose NGO is supported by CCFD-Terre solidaire, the Ata Modo would be an obstacle to the preservation of this nature reserve. » The governor of the province even said in 2020: “In Komodo Park, there are no human rights, only animal rights. »
“No compensation for despoiled land”
Confined since 1980 in their “village of Komodo”, the Ata Modo have brutally feared to relive a new exodus and to be separated from their sebae brothers. “Everyone is angry in the village”assures Akbar, in his thirties, leader of a local youth movement, associated with Sunspirit.
His brick house at the end of the village, surrounded by wooden buildings covered with sheet metal roofs, does not exude wealth. “My parents had to build everything with their own hands, without any help from the government and above all without any compensation for their stolen land and their lost house”, he said, clenching his fists. All official steps to recover the slightest compensation have always ended in failure, refusal or silence, generating a terrible feeling of injustice.
“Suharto also prohibited us from hunting, cutting wood and planting,” adds Kinan, 28, returning from a large gathering of local associations in Maumere at the other end of the large island of Florès. “But we can’t leave the sebae without food. So we always leave goats and chickens in front of our houses for the sebae to come and feed, he explains. Sebae babies even enter houses or settle on roofs. »
With the prohibition to cultivate the land, the Ata Modo have all converted to fishing or local tourism on a human scale: guides, rangers, souvenir sellers, restaurateurs, rental of small boats and tourist agencies based in Labuan Bajo on the large island of Flores, two hours by speedboat.
1000% increase for the entrance fee to Komodo Island
“We are fine here and we refuse to move again,” says Akbar, who has taken many actions for years to defend the right of his people to stay in the village. “We fear the big real estate developers who have been awarded large land grants on the island. »
Last year, the government also wanted “increase the entrance ticket to the park by 1,000%”says sociologist Fernand Venan. “We all protested against this project, which aimed to create a very exclusive luxury tourism which the Ata Modo would not have benefited from since the receipts from the entrances go directly into the pocket of the public authorities. »
Caïa went to demonstrate several times in Labuan Bajo against this increase in prices which would have had a direct impact on her. “The fewer tourists would have come in well-organized groups and would never have stopped at my little restaurant on the beach again,” she assures. Faced with the challenge, the authorities finally abandoned this project.
“We have already won a victory by demonstrating loudly in Labuan Bajo and going on a tourist activity strike, resumes Akbar. But we know that in front of us are powerful financial and economic groups that influence the central government in Jakarta. » He also fears that the government will regulate tourist guide licenses by imposing very strict criteria (diplomas, patents, special taxes, etc.).
“The sebae have sensed the danger, many of them have left the island”
Abused for decades, the Ata Modo have the feeling of being despised and ignored. “We just want a better life, Kenan breathes a bit desperately. We only got electricity in 2017 here, the internet breaks all the time, water is more precious than gold, there’s not a single doctor, only a nurse, and the school lacks resources. We want to have a decent life. »
Mass tourism is feared because it risks being devastating for the fauna, flora and local populations. And the threat continues to weigh: huge hotel infrastructure projects are in the cards of developers. It’s just a matter of time.
In his neat little house on stilts in the heart of the “village of Komodo”, Amin, 67, embodies the memory of the island and carries with him the long history of the Ata Modo. “It would be better if they killed us rather than deporting us”he asserts, trying to control his anger.
From a farmer-hunter before 1980, he had to convert to fishing. He will not accept a new exile. He talks about a strange phenomenon, mentioned by several witnesses on the island and which gives him hope: “The sebae dragons sensed the danger, he says, and many of them have already swum out of Komodo to reach other neighboring islands. If we are expelled, they will follow us. » An additional sign that testifies to a deep complicity between the Ata Modo and the sebae. Inseparable brothers.
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Komodo National Park
Komodo National Park was established by the Indonesian government in 1980 and is one of the country’s 50 national parks. The whole park includes three main islands, Komodo, Rinca and Padar and many small uninhabited islands, composed of an ecosystem and a unique biodiversity in the world.
The site is home to the famous Komodo dragons (or giant monitor lizards, Varanus komodoensis) which would be between 2,700 and 3,000. They cannot be found anywhere else. The indigenous Ata modo tribe, about 2,500 people, have lived on this island for centuries and coexist with the dragons they call « place » (brother or half).
The site was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. The increase in tourism in the western part of the nearby Indonesian island of Flores is a major challenge for the preservation of biodiversity.