11 police officers quizzed over Bulukumba incident
11 police officers quizzed over Bulukumba incident
Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, South Sulawesi
Local police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Tigor Situmorang, his deputy
Comr. Gatot Budiwiono and nine other police offices have been
questioned in connection with a deadly shooting in July that
killed at least two protesters in Bulukumba regency, South
Sulawesi.
South Sulawesi Police chief Insp. Gen. Jusuf Manggabarani said
on Tuesday that the 11 police officers were being questioned by a
team set up to investigate the possibility of procedural
violations in the incident.
The officers have not been named suspects as the investigation
is still under way, he said.
"We have formed an inquiry team to investigate whether the 11
officers committed disciplinary offenses and security procedural
violations," Jusuf said.
The shooting took place on July 21 when police fired shots at
about 1,000 villagers in Bulukumba who were rioting in a protest
against the alleged occupation of their land by rubber plantation
company PT London Sumatra (Lonsum).
The police claim two people were killed, but non-governmental
organizations, including the Indonesian Forum for the Environment
(Walhi), put the death toll at five. Dozens of others were
injured.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) earlier
dispatched an inquiry team to Bulukumba and found indications of
human rights abuses by the police.
After the incident, male residents in at least two villages
near the PT Lonsum-controlled area fled to a nearby forest to
hide from security personnel.
Jusuf said he had held a direct meeting with the Bulukumba
Police chief and his deputy, as well as the nine other police
officers to check the security procedures used to contain the
protesting villagers.
The examination found security procedural violations, saying
Tigor Situmorang and Gatot Budiwiono did not brief their officers
before deploying them to quell the protesters, he said.
"Apart from that, the weapons used by the police also have
weaknesses or are substandard," Jusuf added without elaborating.
He promised to punish the 11 police officers if proven guilty.
The Bulukumba Police had declared at least 29 people suspects
in the violent protest and rampage on the Lonsum plantation.
The suspects included several NGO activists and a member of
the Bulukumba Elections Commission (KPU), Iwan Salassa.
Situmorang had said his office was searching for 26 more
suspects for their alleged role in the unrest.
Jusuf accused five of the suspects -- Andi Mappasomba, Andi
Riadi, Iwan Salassa, Icci and Muhammad Dahlan -- of being the
instigators of the violence.
"They incited the violence by cutting down rubber trees and
expelling PT Lonsum workers living on the plantation. They had
promised local people free plots of land if the villagers managed
to occupy the plantation," Jusuf added.