Kontras hand over guns used to intimidate protestors

Kontras hand over guns used to intimidate protestors

JAKARTA (JP): The Committee for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras) handed over on Thursday two guns allegedly
used to intimidate local people in Lampung to National Police
chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro.

Kontras' advisory board member Munir said the pistols were
seized recently from local thugs, who he said had used the guns
to scare off residents staging a protest at a local palm
plantation in the Banjar Agung district of the Tulang Bawang
regency.

"The guns had been given to the thugs by police," Munir said.

According to Munir, thousands of locals during the Aug. 28
protest demanded that the plantation's owner return their land,
which they claimed was taken without any compensation.

During the rally, Munir said, local thugs fired the guns to
scare off the protesters. No injuries or fatalities were reported
among the protesters.

However, angry locals beat one of the thugs to death and
seized the guns, Munir said.

Munir, who personally handed the guns to the police during a
meeting between police and 13 non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) at the National Police Headquarters here, said that one of
the guns was a Colt .38 and the other was unable to be identified
because it had been badly broken.

"We just want to say that police still use violence to solve
problems," Munir said, adding that recently in East Java, eight
farmers have been killed by police personnel and several others
injured in separate incidents in Lampung.

The meeting, which discussed police violence in several areas,
was initially open to reporters.

However, dozens of reporters and news photographers were later
asked to leave the meeting by the police.

"We would be embarrassed if reporters saw the meeting,"
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf told The Jakarta
Post later in the evening.

Earlier before the meeting started, Saleh said that it was
Kontras which did not want reporters to cover the meeting. But
Munir denied Saleh's accusation.

Disappointed

Munir said that the NGOs attending the meeting were
disappointed by police chief Bimantoro who showed a reluctance to
accept criticism from the participating NGOs.

"We are very disappointed because the police invited us only
to listen to a long speech from Bimantoro," Munir said, adding
that there was a high level of tension between police and NGO
members at the meeting.

Among the participating NGOs at the meeting were the Institute
for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), the Indonesian
Institute of Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Legal Aid
Institute (LBH) for Jakarta chapter, and the Association of
Indonesian Women for Justice (LBH Apik).(jaw)