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)