Komnas HAM to investigate Manggarai shooting

Komnas HAM to investigate Manggarai shooting

P.C. Naommy and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) revealed on
Monday that it planned to send a fact-finding mission to
investigate the shooting by police officers of demonstrating
farmers in Manggarai, Flores, last week.

"There are a number of reasons for the sending of the team to
Manggarai, including the fact that the shooting killed five
people and injured dozens of others," Taheri Noor, a member of
the commission, said during a meeting with a group calling itself
the Manggarai People's Advocacy Team.

Promising to send the mission soon, Taheri said that the
deaths of civilians indicated possible rights violations.

He did not name the members of the team or when exactly the
team would leave for Manggarai.

Erwin Usman, who led the advocacy team, said he expected the
commission to investigate how it had happened that police
officers had opened fire directly on civilians.

In Ruteng, Flores, the Manggarai diocese announced that an
independent fact-finding team had started an investigation to
find out what had really happened, Antara reported.

"The team will conduct investigations on the ground so as to
determine the facts of the case from various sources, including
the police, local religious leaders, community leaders and the
people actually involved in the incident," said Rev. Mali, the
head of the diocese's justice and truth commission.

Meanwhile, National Police Headquarters announced on Monday
that the Nusa Tenggara police had arrested ten suspects in the
March 11 bloody incident.

None of the suspects, however, were police officers.

"They were involved in the attack on the Manggarai subprecinct
police office," deputy police spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko told
reporters here Monday.

All of the suspects were caught red-handed carrying machetes
during the incident, Soenarko said.

East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Police chief Brig. Gen. Edward
Aritonang told reporters in Kupang on Monday that Manggarai
police sub-precinct chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Bonifasius Tompoi had
been suspended from his post so as to facilitate the
investigation.

Tompoi had been replaced by Adj. Sr. Comr. Wasiran Robert, the
head of internal supervision with the NTT police.

"The internal investigation aimed at finding out why our
officers fired on the protesting farmers," he told reporters.

Around 400 coffee farmers stormed the Manggarai sub-prescient
police office on March 11 to demand the release of seven locals
who had been detained by police for planting coffee in a
protected forest.

The police claimed they had opened fire on machete-wielding
and stone-throwing farmers, who had ignored warning shots to
disperse.

Edward accused "provocateurs" of instigating the attack on the
police office.

The Manggarai regency has banned agriculture in protected
forests but locals have been ignoring the ban as they consider
the land involved to be their ancestral land.

Despite protests from farmers, the local administration has
destroyed about 15,000 hectares of illegally cultivated coffee
since last year.