NGOs urge probe into Manggarai shooting

NGOs urge probe into Manggarai shooting

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara

An alliance of 23 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) joined
force on Friday to call on the National Commission of Human
Rights to carry out an independent and thorough investigation
into the Manggarai shooting that left five dead and 28 others
wounded.

In the meantime, a replacement was conducted in the Manggarai
police precinct, in an apparent move to make a smooth
investigation by the police team into the incident.

The Forum of Solidarity for Manggarai People set up by the 23
NGOs in East Nusa Tenggara said the rights body should conduct an
independent investigation immediately to collect (physical)
evidence and obtain first-hand information on the incident from
the injured victims, eyewitnesses and local officials.

They maintained that Manggarai regent Antony Bagul Dagur and
local police chief Bonifacius Tompoi should be held responsible
for the shooting.

"The arbitrary shooting cannot be tolerated in the society
that respects justice and humanity. The shooting to death of five
civilians is the first incident on Flores Island and we have
never imagined that the local administration committed such a
brutality on the people who have supported their daily life,"
Folkes, coordinator of the solidarity forum, said in a press
conference.

The NGO alliance consisted of, among others, House for Women,
Indonesian Catholic Youth Organization (PMKRI), the Justice and
Truth Commission in Kupang Diocese, the Anti-troubled Politician
Network and Crisis Center for East Timorese Refugees.

The police have also evacuated five bodies of the dead victims
to Cocol village, 35 kilometers south of Ruteng, for burial while
28 others wounded in the incident are still undergoing medical
treatment at the Manggarai General Hospital.

In Jakarta, the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights
Association (PBHI) and the Indonesian Forest Conservation
Cooperation Network Skephi have also urged an independent and
thorough investigation into the incident, saying the government
should recognized the local people's communal rights to make the
forest.

According to the two non-governmental organizations said the
regent 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.

East Nusa Tenggara Police chief Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang
swore in Sr. Adj. Comr. Wasiran Robert as new chief of the
Manggarai police to replace Tompoi.

Many have speculated that the replacement has something to do
with the incident because it has since long beein planned.

Inspector at the provincial police headquarters in Kupang said
that despite the replacement, Tompoi has been asked to be
available any time he was asked to give clarification about the
incident.