Komnas HAM team to return to Bulukumba

Komnas HAM team to return to Bulukumba

JAKARTA: A team from the National Commission on Human Rights
(Komnas HAM) will soon return to Bulukumba regency in South
Sulawesi to resume its investigation of alleged human rights
abuse by police, a member said here on Tuesday.

M.M. Billah said the team would leave shortly after it
completed another probe in Aceh province. "I will chair the team
myself, and its membership will include Hasballah M. Saad,
Mansour Fakih and Hasto Atmojo," he said.

He said the investigation was a follow-up of the team's
findings at the scene last with indications of human rights
violations when police shot dead at least two people and injured
dozens of others in Bulukumba during a labor dispute last month.

Non-governmental organizations have put the death toll at
five.

Police said they fired shots to disperse the villagers who
were holding a rally in front of rubber plantation firm PT London
Sumatra (Lonsum) on July 21.

"Our team concluded that some of the police may have committed
human rights violations during the protest. They (protesters)
also received harsh treatment from the police during their
interrogations. They were intimidated and forced to leave their
homes," Billah said.

The angry villagers were expressing a decades-long grievance
in which they allege that their land had been illegally occupied
by the company.--JP