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.