Palangkaraya tense as violence continues
PALANGKARAYA, Central Kalimantan (JP): The situation got out of hand in the Central Kalimantan capital of Palangkaraya on Friday as hundreds of locals, mostly Dayaks, ran amok, attacking police officers and setting a police truck ablaze.
The city, home to around 160,000 people, was already tense on Friday before protesters turned violent to protest the death of a local at the hands of a police officer on Thursday.
Witnesses said that the protesters had been gathering in the Bunderan Besar area in the center of Palangkaraya from morning.
Gunshots were heard but no fatalities were reported.
More and more people, including students, joined the demonstration to condemn what they called the police's brutality against the people.
They also demanded that Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) troopers from Kelapa Dua, Jakarta be sent home soon.
Around 500 students, grouped in the Palangkaraya Students' Forum then marched to the local legislature, urging that the National Police be held responsible for the shooting.
"The Central Kalimantan Police chief, Brig. Gen. Bambang Pranoto, and Palangkaraya Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. J.A. Sumampouw must be held accountable for the incident," one of the students said in a speech delivered in front of the legislative building.
Large crowds of people had taken to the streets on Thursday to protest during the visit of President Abdurrahman Wahid to Palangkaraya. The police had, apparently, been forced to open fire to quell the protests as a result of which one of the demonstrators was shot in the head.
Unconfirmed reports said that six people were killed during Thursday's demonstrations, but the police maintained that only one person, identified as Hendrison, 29, was killed during the clash.
Ten people, including three Brimob troopers, were also injured, police said.
The demonstrators had been demanding a resolution to the Sampit conflict which left at least 400 people, mostly Madurese migrants, killed. But many locals said that the demonstration was, in fact, sparked by the suspicion that President Abdurrahman would insist that the Madurese refugees (in East Java) be returned to Sampit.
Antara reported on Friday that at least seven trucks full of protesters were parked on Jl. Tjilik Riwut across from the Central Kalimantan Police and Brimob headquarters.
A barbed wire cordon blocked off access to the headquarters, where hundreds of armed police officers stood by on alert.
Residents' houses and both government and private offices were flying the red and white Indonesian flag at half-mast as a mark of respect for the dead demonstrator.
In the evening, groups of Dayaks, swords in hand, were to be seen loitering in several spots in Palangkaraya. The city looked like a ghost town. Streets were deserted as many people chose to stay at home, despite the fact that a curfew had not been imposed.
Central Kalimantan Governor Asmawi Agani said by phone on Friday that the local authorities were in the process of conducting intensive discussions with local Dayak leaders.
"All parties must calm down. What we don't need is for the people to lose trust in the security forces. If that happens, who will be capable of restoring order here?" he asked.
In Sampit, some 220 kilometers west of Palangkaraya, two unidentified men, believed to have been Madurese who had been hiding in the nearby jungle, burned three vacant houses on Friday.
On the same day in the regency of Kuala Pembuang, some 100 kilometers south of Sampit, two bodies were found and 100 houses belonging to Madurese migrants were burned down by locals. Kuala Pembuang regency was established only three months ago.
Mahfud
In Jakarta, Mahfud M.D. said that the Sampit mayhem was not his responsibility as Minister of Defense.
"If you read People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Decree No. 7/2000 on the separation of the police and military, it is the police who are in charge of security, not the Minister of Defense."
"If the police are not able to (keep the peace), then they can ask the military for help... and it is only then that my office comes into play."
Mahfud was referring to several politicians who had criticized him for traveling abroad while Sampit was "burning."
"Morally, however, I feel responsible for what happened in Sampit. My position (in the Sampit case) is similar to that of the Attorney General or Minister of Justice and Human Rights. None of us can interfere in security affairs."
Mahfud also dismissed allegations that the security forces had been too sluggish in handling the riots in Central Kalimantan.
"Sampit is very remote and our military and police are lacking the standard equipment necessary for dealing with such riots. So, given the facts... I don't think that they were slow." (32/02/edt/sur)