Another case of vandalism hits Tangerang village

TANGERANG (JP): Another case of vandalism against the property of a village head occurred on Saturday night, two days after a similar attack in a different village.

Hundreds of Jeungjing villagers in the Cisoka district of Tangerang ran amok and pelted stones at the house of the village head, Tatang Supriatna. The incident began at around 11:30 p.m. and lasted into the early hours of Sunday.

According to the villagers, the attack occurred because Tatang refused to distribute cheap rice supplied by the government to the poor villagers.

He instead sold most of the rice to brokers, who then sold the rice to the villagers for Rp 2,000 per kilogram, they said.

The villagers said that each family in the village was supposed to get 20 kilogram of rice at half that price.

"But we were only allowed to get five kilograms of rice at the lower price," Mahruf told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

"Most of the rice distributed by the State Logistics Agency has not reached the needy people. The chief sold it to the brokers instead. That's why we, the villagers, got angry," he said.

Tatang could not be reached for comment.

"The village head and his family have left their home, which was damaged by the villagers last night," Tatang's next-door neighbor, Marta, said.

According to the head of the Tangerang police detectives, Capt. Krisnadi, there were no fatalities during the incident.

"His (Tatang's) wife was at home when the mob pelted it with stones, but there were no fatalities," Krisnadi said.

Dozens of police and soldiers were dispatched to the scene to prevent any further damage.

Krisnadi urged Tangerang residents to stop committing such acts of violence.

"If there's a problem, please report it to the authorities. Don't just ran amok because it only inflicts losses and damage to other people," he said.

According to Krisnadi, three similar cases of vandalism occurred in the past two weeks in Tangerang. These incidents were in the villages of Laksana, Mauk and Kayu Agung.

The most recent occurrence of vandalism took place in Kayu Agung last Thursday, when some 300 villagers in the Sepatan district ran amok and vandalized the office and house of their village chief, Mingsar.

The mobs claimed that the chief failed to keep his promise to improve the welfare of the local people.

Mingsar was also accused of keeping rice rations which were intended for local poor people.

Police are, however, looking into the possibility that the recent spate of vandalism was masterminded by certain groups of people.

"We're still tracing the possibility that other parties are involved, to find out whether all these cases were caused naturally by the people's angers and frustrations," Krisnadi said. (41/bsr)