Police hand over Manggarai report to Komnas HAM

Police hand over Manggarai report to Komnas HAM

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang, West Nusa Tenggara

A team of detectives has completed its probe into the Manggarai
shooting that killed six local residents and injured 26 others, a
senior police officer said on Friday.

Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, the chief of the East Nusa
Tenggara Provincial Police, said that the team, comprising nine
officers from National Police Headquarters, had also handed over
its report to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas
HAM) for further investigation.

Aritonang said that the report was handed over to the rights
body because as following the enactment of the Human Rights Law
in 2000, the police no longer had the power to prepare files with
a view to prosecution in cases involving violations of human
rights.

A senior police officer -- Adj. Sr. Comr. Bonifasius Tompoi,
the chief of the Manggarai Police -- was identified as being
responsible for the shooting incident, along with 15 civilians.

"The rights body may dig deeper into the case based on our
report. If the body considers that the suspects have violated
human rights after these investigations, the rights body will
then prepare a file and hand it over to the Attorney General's
Office (AGO) for further prosecution," he told reporters here in
Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province.

If the Attorney General's Office makes a finding regarding
those whom it believes were responsible for the incident, it will
produce a file for submission to the House of Representatives for
scrutiny.

The House will observe the report and investigate the case,
and make recommendations as to whether the case can be brought to
the human rights tribunal. If the House finds that there are
strong indications that police personnel or civilians have
violated human rights, then it will recommend the a human rights
tribunal be set up to prosecute the case.

The investigation and prosecution of human rights violations
has become more complicated since the law on human rights was
enacted in 2000 as part of an effort to promote and uphold human
rights in the country.

The shooting incident in Manggarai regency occurred when some
400 coffee farmers stormed the Manggarai police station on March
11 to demand the release of seven local residents who had been
detained by police for planting coffee in a protected forest.

The police opened fire, leaving six of the protesters dead and
26 others injured. Meanwhile, seven police personnel were
injured, while all the windows on the front of Manggarai police
headquarters were shattered.

The police claimed they had opened fire on the machete-
wielding and stone-throwing farmers only after the farmers
ignored warning shots to disperse.

Manggarai regency has banned agriculture in protected forests
but locals have been ignoring the ban as they consider the land
involved to be their ancestral land.

Despite protests from farmers, the local administration has
destroyed about 15,000 hectares of illegally cultivated coffee
since last year.