Bojong residents in grief after clash
Bojong residents in grief after clash
The Jakarta Post
Bogor/Bandung/Jakarta
Dozens of mostly women residents of Bojong village, Klapanunggal
district, Bogor, West Java, had to undergo a long journey on
Tuesday before being allowed to visit their husbands and brothers
hospitalized with gunshot wounds after Monday's clash with the
police over the opening of a waste processing facility.
National Commission on Human Rights member M.M. Billah
received complaints from the women on how they were denied access
to the Sukanto Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, and
reports on family members who were still missing.
Accompanied by Billah, the residents were finally allowed to
see their relatives in the hospital.
Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) deputy director
Rida Saleh, who accompanied the women, said that the National
Police had also given its permission on Tuesday afternoon for the
families to visit the victims in the hospital.
"After a visit and a body count, it has become clear that six
victims were shot, not seven as we previously thought."
Another victim was reportedly receiving treatment in the
hospital for cuts.
The clash was the result of the residents' vehement opposition
to the waste treatment plant, which is operated by PT Wira Guna
Sejahtera and is designed to process waste from Jakarta and
Bogor, which the residents believe will give rise to health
problems and damage the environment.
The plant was supposed to use environmentally friendly bale
press technology. However, the machinery turned out not to be
suitable as it can only process non-organic waste. So, the
operator converted the facility into an incinerator.
The residents' protest during the tryout of the plant on
Monday turned ugly after they tried to burn down the facility.
The police opened fire using live rounds, wounding six protesters
as a result. They then beat and detained 33 others.
The wounded and detained protesters have been named suspects
for inciting the clash.
Human rights activists immediately demanded talks with the
National Police on Monday night, slamming the violence and
claiming it was a gross violation of human rights.
One resident, Ontin, reported to the rights commission that
her husband, Dudung, had gone missing after the disturbances.
The residents said that most of the village's young men had
decided to leave home out of fear that the police would
arbitrarily arrest them as suspects.
They also reported that their relatives who had been detained
in the Bogor police station had been badly beaten and that at
first they were not allowed to see them.
State Minister for the Environment, Rachmat Witoelar, blamed
the Jakarta and Bogor administrations for their failure to
disseminate information to the residents beforehand. This
corroborated a statement by the West Java governor, Danny
Setiawan, who said that he had never received the environmental
impact analysis for the facility, which is located in a
residential area.
West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Edi Darnadi said he would
facilitate a meeting between all those involved to find an
amicable solution to the problem, and that he had sent internal
affairs officers to question the police personnel who had been
involved in the incident.