One dies in strike against forest looters

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Police operations to curb looting of teak forests in Ngawi regency have resulted in one fatality, two rubber bullet injuries and at least 115 arrests between Sept. 3 and Sept. 9.

Suparman Marzuki, the head of the legal aid consultancy at the privately run Indonesian Islamic University, has alleged that the operation, code-named Wana Semeru, had violated people's human rights.

Security personnel involved in the operation included police of the local mobile brigade, combat infantry and Air Force special forces.

"The security apparatus' actions have exceeded those normally taken in law enforcement," Suparman said here on Thursday, adding that the villager who had died, 50-year-old Panut, had been in police detention. His family was notified only two hours before the police buried him without soliciting a postmortem examination, he said.

The legal aid agency, representing residents of Beringin, Kedung Rejo, Genengan and Nampu villages, plans to dispatch an investigation team to collect information about alleged violations.

"Security personnel, for instance, didn't arrest people caught red-handed stealing teak wood, but took away people eating in foodstalls or working their land," Suparman said.

Of the 115 people arrested, 82 have been released. The rest, he said, were still in police custody.

He described the four villages as tense and quiet and said 250 residents had sought shelter at the local legislative council.

The economic crisis has prompted many incidents of looting and rioting throughout the country. Recent incidents of unrest have taken place in the East Java towns of Bondowoso and Situbondo, in the Central Java towns of Kebumen, Cilacap and other remote areas and in the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak.

The situation in Kebumen has reportedly returned to normal after mobs looted and burned dozens of shops, factories and other buildings on Monday and Tuesday. Tension, however, has spread to neighboring Gombong where rumors are rife that properties of Chinese-Indonesians there would be attacked soon.

Kebumen residents have reported that truckloads of troops had left the town for Gombong, some 30 kilometers away.

The rumors in Gombong started circulating after a fire gutted the house of a Chinese-Indonesian resident and a mob burned down another house. Shops in the town were closed on Thursday.

Kedu Police chief Col. Deddy Komaruddin, whose jurisdiction covers Kebumen and Gombong, said extra security personnel were being deployed to safeguard the town. "I will try very hard and will cooperate with local people and leaders to prevent unrest," he promised.

Central Java Military Commander Maj. Gen. Tyasno Sudarto also called on the public to exercise self restraint and not to be easily provoked.

Antara reported that similar tension was pervasive in Pinrang regency, South Sulawesi, after rumors started circulating that the province's biggest rice supplier would be the target of rioting if two local cooperatives suspected of running a scam failed to return their customers' money by Sept. 15.

Parepare Police chief Col. Toto S. Suwali said local forces and the populace had been warned to prepare for any possibility. Police there, for instance, have launched an operation to confiscate sharp weapons being carried by residents. (44/har/swe)