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.