Manggarai returns into normal
Manggarai returns into normal
Yemris Fointuna and P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Kupang/Jakarta
The situation in Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara, has
returned to normal following a bloody rampage in the regency town
of Ruteng on Wednesday that killed five people and injured 28
others, including several police personnel.
Reliable sources in Ruteng told The Jakarta Post by telephone
on Thursday that people were going about their daily activities,
public offices were open again and many supporters of political
parties marched along the main streets on the first day of the
election campaign.
But, hundreds of security personnel deployed after the
incident, have remained on guard in anticipation of further
clashes.
Spokesman for the National Police Brig. Gen. Soenarko said the
situation was calm after more than 200 security personnel were
deployed following the incident.
Five were killed and 28 others were injured when a number of
police personnel opened fire on around 400 villagers who stormed
the Manggarai Police Precinct in Ruteng to demand the release of
seven villagers arrested at the police detention center.
The five fatalities were identified as Max Piu, 30, Frans
Magur, 60, Yoseph Tafuk, 23, Vitalis Jarut, 23 and Dominicus
Amput, 40, while the number of injured victims were 28 and not 24
as was reported on Thursday. Seven police personnel were also
injured in the incident.
The police station was also badly damaged in the incident.
According to the preliminary investigation, the police opened
fire because the villagers had run amok and had attacked police
personnel who were in the backyard of the police station.
Police Chief Da'i warned on Wednesday that he would take
strict action if any police personnel, including the police
chief, had violated procedures in handling the incident.
In Jakarta, the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights
Association (PBHI) and the Indonesian Forest Conservation
Cooperation Network Skephi deplored the incident, and called on
the government to investigate the shooting thoroughly.
The two non-governmental organizations said Manggarai regent
Antony Bagur Dagul should be held responsible for the incident
because he has barred locals from farming in the disputed
protected forest and ordered the police to arrest seven farmers,
the owners of a coffee plantation in the forest.
They said the regent's action was flawed because the forest
belonged to the local communities before it was declared a nature
reserve.
The police also apologized on Thursday to families whose
relatives were killed and injured in the incident.
East Nusa Tenggara Provincial Police deputy chief Sr. Comr.
Arthur Damanik said in Kupang that the police and the local
administration in Manggarai had conveyed their condolences to the
families of the victims and visited the injured at Manggarai
General Hospital to convey their apologies for the incident.
"Provincial Police chief Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang
accompanied by the Manggarai regent apologized to the relatives
of the deceased and to the injured victims at the hospital," he
said in the job transfer ceremony at the Kupang Police station.
Damanik said that the police had deployed two separate teams
to carry out a thorough investigation into the incident.
A team which was sent by National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar
and led by Sr. Comr. Iwan Ismeth, is still on its way to
Manggarai while a nine-member fact-finding team established by
the provincial police has already commenced its investigation, he
said.
The two teams will work separately although they will be
probing the same case, he said without explaining why the police
set up two teams.