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.