Police attack anti-regent protesters

Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Tenggarong

Police officers violently broke up a picket inside the Kutai Kartanegara regental administration compound here on Wednesday, beating several picketers who were camping out to protest the appointment of an acting regent.

Seven picketers were hurt in the incident with at least one hospitalized for serious injuries. The police arrested 50 others for questioning but later released them.

Witnesses described the incident as an ambush that took place at about 7 a.m., when some 200 protesters held a sit-in protest inside the Kutai administration office's compound in Tenggarong, some 30 kilometers from Samarinda in East Kalimantan.

"Police stormed the tents where the protesters were staying for shelter, and beat and kicked them and drove them out," witness and protest coordinator Winarno Saputro said.

Supriyadi, 18, a victim of the attack, said he was among those beaten and kicked, although he had nothing to with the demonstrators.

He said he was asked by a protest leader to install a sound system during the protest: "The police ignored my appeals (to them) and attacked me instead".

"I had cried out that I was not a demonstrator but the police still beat me. I couldn't do anything and was later taken to hospital," he said.

Kutai Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Supriyanto denied the incident was an attack on demonstrators opposed to the swearing- in of Awang Darma Bhakti as acting regent of Kutai.

He played the incident down as a "minor event", and firm action taken by his subordinates to protect state assets.

Before the incident, he said, protesters had prevented the police from entering the office compound to provide security there. "This condition forced the police to take action," he said.

He also claimed that the police had found liquor bottles near the tents.

"This also sparked a friction among them. The incident was not aimed to take over the area from the control of the masses, but to prevent possible security disturbances," Suprianto said.

He said the police wanted Kutai to remain secure but were not opposed to demonstrations. "We want the protesters to abide by existing (legal) mechanisms and not to disadvantage themselves." He did not elaborate further.

The protest that began on Dec. 13, originally involved thousands of people, who had turned out to object to Awang replacing former Kutai regent Syaukani HR who ended his five-year term earlier this month.

The protesters said the move by the central government to replace Syaukani was politically motivated and demanded his term be extended until a new regent was directly elected in June next year.

Since then, a group had picketed the local administration building, paralyzing work there.

All offices inside the building had been locked and guarded by police officers during the picket and local body officials had remained at home.

Syaukani's reappointment was backed by his own council, which voted his term be extended.