Cinangka villagers questioned over vandalism

JAKARTA (JP): Bogor police officers on Friday were still questioning dozens of Cinangka villagers following the destruction of the office of the local Ciampea subdistrict chief on the previous day.

As of Friday evening, the police had yet to name any of the villagers as suspects in leading the mob to vandalize the government property.

"Everything is already under control here as we're still investigating the case," an officer at the Ciampea police subprecinct told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Friday.

The officer, who asked not to be named, refused to give further details about the questioning.

Bogor police chief Lt. Col. Ferial Manaf could not be reached for comment.

According to media reports, a group of some 300 Cinangka villagers attacked the empty office at 10 a.m. Thursday. They were expressing their frustration at the negative reaction of Ciampea subdistrict chief Iyun Mulyana to their complaints about the business melting storage batteries in their neighborhood.

No fatalities were reported but Mulyana's office was badly damaged by the angry mob, who claimed to have many times urged the local authorities to close down the melting activity as it polluted the local river and air.

Witnesses said the crowd was suddenly spotted swarming around the chief's office, causing a heavy traffic jam on the main road that links Bogor and Leuwiliang, south of here.

On the first day after the Idul Fitri holidays the office was still empty. Mulyana was reportedly on holiday in his hometown of Garut, West Java.

After damaging the front of the office and pulling out the signboard in front of the building, the mob got inside the office and vandalized everything they found.

Some of them took out bundles of archives and documents from the office and threw them onto the street.

The mob could only be dispersed peacefully a few hours later thanks to the arrival of some 50 police officers and soldiers at the site.

A few minutes later, the security forces were alerted again following a fresh fight between the protesting residents and locals who were involved in the battery business.

No serious incident happened but the security forces were still being asked to safeguard the area.

According to the protesting villagers, they had several times asked the local officers to immediately seal off the illegal business for the sake of their health and environment.

"But we so far got no positive response," said one of them.

"We became more upset after learning that our Cinangka village chief, Mrs. Atang, also takes part in the business as a supplier of charcoals," he added. (bsr)