NGOs sue govt over Sampit case

NGOs sue govt over Sampit case

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court started
hearing on Monday a lawsuit filed by five non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) against the government for its failure to
prevent the bloodshed in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, between
February and March this year.

For its negligence, the NGOs demanded that the government pay
Rp 1.9 billion in compensation and Rp 110.6 billion to help
resettle people of Madurese origin who were forced to flee their
homes.

The NGOs, who claim to represent some 28,000 Madurese migrants
who were forced to flee Sampit as a result of the violence,
charged the President, National Police chief and the Central
Kalimantan provincial administration with "having done nothing to
stop the ethnic pogrom and even having allowed an act of genocide
to take place".

"They (the government and the police) were supposed to provide
legal protection for the (Madurese) people by taking resolute
measures against the rioters, but they failed to do so," Karel
Tuacalu of the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras) told the court.

At least 357 people, mostly Madurese, were killed and hundreds
of others wounded in the violence, which first erupted early in
February. More than 28,000 people were forced to flee, with most
of them returning to their ancestral homeland of Madura in East
Java.

A similar pogrom perpetrated by indigenous inhabitants and
directed against Madurese migrants erupted in Sambas, West
Kalimantan, in 1997.

Joining Kontras in taking the class action against the
government were the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights
Association (PBHI), the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation
(YLHBI), the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam),
and the Association of Legal Advisors and Indonesian Human Rights
(APHI).

The NGOs also stated that the government and the police could
be charged with violating Articles 1365 and 1366 of the Civil
Code for directly or indirectly causing losses to others.

The trial was adjourned until July 23, to hear the response of
defense lawyers from the Attorney General's Office and the
National Police Legal Aid Unit. (tso)