Police committee orders detention of 18 officers over Flores shooting
Police committee orders detention of 18 officers over Flores shooting
Yemris Fointuna
Kupang
A police disciplinary committee in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara,
ordered 18 officers to be detained on Thursday for only six days
for their role in a shooting incident last March on Flores island
that killed six people.
However, the committee exonerated another low-ranking officer
of all charges over the shooting in Manggarai regency, Flores.
Two of the 18 punished police officers were ordered by the
committee to be held in special detention for six days, East Nusa
Tenggara Police spokesman First Insp. Chusnul Waton said in
Kupang.
He said the two -- Second Brig. Tausius Tanus and Brig. Piter
Jhon, who were both working at a police weapons warehouse during
the March 11 incident -- would also have their promotions delayed
for six months.
The committee said the two and 16 other officers had forcibly
opened the warehouse and took ammunition and firearms, in what
they claimed was an act of self-defense, without permission from
their superiors.
"They were charged with disciplinary offenses, as stipulated
in Government Regulation No. 2/2003 on the code of police
discipline and other rulings because they used firearms without
the permission or knowledge of their superiors," Waton said.
The same committee earlier ordered the dismissal of Manggarai
Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Boni Tompoi for failing to prevent
the deadly violence.
On Monday, the committee imposed light sanctions on two
middle-ranking officers for their role in the shooting, but
acquitted local intelligence unit chief First Insp. I Made
Andhika, a middle-ranking police officer, of all charges.
The two punished middle-ranking officers were given only a
written reprimand and have been banned from taking part in police
training courses for six months.
They were found guilty of negligence in the performance of
their duty, according to the committee.
The Manggarai shootings occurred after local regent Anton
Bagul Dagur ordered his subordinates to fell thousands of coffee
trees in plantations belonging to local people in Colol village
early in March.
There were few villagers in the area when public order
officers and police personnel arrived and began cutting down the
trees. The residents, who insisted that the area was ancestral
land, put up resistance, but were arrested and detained at
Manggarai police station.
The following day, some 400 residents turned up at the police
station to protest the arrest of their seven neighbors. The
demonstration turned ugly when the police refused to release the
detainees, with the angry crowd attacking police personnel.
In retaliation, officers fired into the crowd, killing six
people and seriously injuring 28 others.
Last month, a National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM)
team visited Manggarai to investigate alleged human rights abuses
during the melee. However, the team has yet to announce the
results of its findings.