Despite not having the consent of the local residents, at the beginning of April 2015, construction work commenced at the proposed project site of the “Batan coal-fired power plant project in Central Java, Indonesia”, a large scale development project invested in by several Japanese companies, and with potential financing from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The Indonesian army has reportedly moved heavy equipment into the area and started clearing and embanking works in the middle of farmland, causing an extremely tense situation. ...  Ongoing and strong concerns regarding a loss of livelihoods, such as farming and fishing, and health impacts from pollution, have been raised persistently by local communities, and the project has been unable to proceed for three years. During this period, community leaders opposed to the project and landowners refusing to sell their land in the proposed project site have been subject to repeated human rights violations, such as intimidation, violence, and arbitrary arrest and detention at the hands of the army, the police, and other actors. Despite these human rights violations, the landowners who own approximately 10 percent of the proposed project site are still refusing to sell their land. On April 9, 2015, local residents opposed to the project submitted a letter to JBIC, reaffirming their “determination never to accept a coal fired power plant in (their) community” and calling on JBIC “not to finance this project.”