Activist says police fired on farmers

JAKARTA (JP): At least one person was killed and another 11 injured when police opened fire on hundreds of protesting farmers in Jember, East Java, on Wednesday last week, a human rights activist said on Tuesday.

R. Herlambang from the Surabaya Legal Aid Foundation said in an eight-page report that personnel from the police's Mobile Brigade unit were attempting to disperse the farmers, who had taken over the warehouse of a government-owned plantation company in Panti district, some 200 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital of Surabaya.

The farmers accused the company of illegally occupying 477 hectares of their land.

"The operation (to flush out the farmers) was carried out by some 200 local hoodlums and three platoons of the Jember Police Mobile Brigade," the report said. The troops were led by the deputy chief of the Jember Police, Maj. Bambang Trianto.

Bambang also shot one of the farmers, according to the report.

It said Anwar Kholil, 25, died on his way to Soebandi General Hospital, and as of April 22 at least five people were still being treated at the hospital for gunshot wounds. The report also said three farmers were taken to a local police station after receiving medical care at the hospital.

The report said the farmers took over the warehouse on April 19 and two days later they heard that local hoodlums had been hired to dispel them.

The report said the farmers armed themselves with sharp weapons and erected barricades to hold back the hoodlums.

According to the report, the hoodlums did appear but were accompanied by Mobile Brigade personnel.

"When the farmers saw the police personnel were also there, they were glad and they were willing to negotiate with the police," the report said.

The violence erupted, the report said, after a number of police personnel beat one of the farmers with their rifle butts and kicked a number of other farmers.

The report said one of the injured farmers, Zeki, 25, was shot at point-blank range, with about seven bullets hitting him in his leg, thigh, groin and back.

The report also said security personnel handcuffed a number of the victims to their hospital beds.

It added that the farmers' houses near the plantation company were set on fire by the police and the hoodlums.

"Their belongings, including a number of cars and some 40 motorcycles, also were taken away by the police and a number of the motorcycles were vandalized by the hoodlums in front of the owners," the report said.

The report said police arrested at least 98 people and as of April 25 at least 30 people were still being detained.

The report added that 12 of those being detained were accused of provoking the farmers to defy police orders, and these 12 were put in a separate cell in the Jember Police Headquarters.

The report also said families of the detainees were barred from visiting them.

Media reports said on Tuesday that some 700 families from the nearby villages of Kemiri, Suci and Pakis in Panti district had fled their homes for fear of further arrests. (byg)