House sets up teams of investigation
House sets up teams of investigation
Kurniawan Hari
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The House of Representatives (DPR) on Tuesday set up three teams
of investigation, one monitoring team and one special committee
(pansus) to deal with various issues.
The three teams will investigate the Bojong incident, the
Jagorawi toll road accident, and the death of human rights
activist Munir.
The monitoring team will oversee the extension of the civil
emergency status in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD), and the
special committee will probe the cause of mass riots in Poso,
Central Sulawesi.
The establishment of the four teams and one committee was made
in a plenary meeting led by deputy House speaker Soetardjo
Soerjogoeritno of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI-P).
Members of the teams are taken from various factions and from
related House commissions.
Effendi M.S. Simbolon, a member of the team that will
investigate Munir's death, said that his team would endeavor
collect information as effectively as possible.
According to Effendi, his team would hear information from
the rights watch group Imparsial, the Commission on Missing
Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and from Munir's widow
Suciwati.
"We hope we can also meet with other sources that may provide
us with information," he told the press here.
Separately, Permadi -- a member of the team to monitor the
civilian emergency in Aceh -- said his team had not yet organized
an internal meeting to discuss its agenda.
"I think the monitoring team will be the same as the previous
team that monitored the implementation of the martial law and
civil emergency status in Aceh," Permadi said, referring to a
monitoring team established by legislators of the period 1999-
2004.
The previous team sent members into the conflict-torn province
several times. However, the legislators spent most of their time
in the capital city, saying that visiting conflict areas was too
dangerous.
The team investigating the Bojong incident will probe the
repressive action taken by police officers against a group of
people protesting the operation of a waste treatment facility in
Bojong, Bogor, West Java.
Police allegedly raided houses of local people, beat
protesters, and dragged them into police stations. Dozens of
people were injured.
The investigation team on the Jagorawi toll road accident will
probe the events leading to the incident that took place when
police accompanying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's convoy
suddenly stopped traffic, leading to a fatal pile-up.
Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng almost immediately
blamed a bus driver for the accident which claimed six lives and
injured 10 others.
Police are under fire because the accident with claims that
they had halted the traffic too abruptly on the fast toll road,
and did not give drivers enough time to slow down.