'Policemen' burn farmer's house

BANDUNG: A farmer from Bunisari village, Sagaranten district, Sukabumi, some 95 kilometers from here, filed a report on Wednesday with the West Java Provincial Legislature about a group of men wearing police Mobile Brigade uniforms who torched his house last Friday.

Karmidi, a 64-year-old father of five, told members of the legislature's Commission A the uniformed men, who arrived in a police vehicle, destroyed his house while he was in Bandung to file a report with the Legal Aid Institute about the arrest of two of his neighbors, Herman and Sonip, on March 14. The two were arrested for allegedly cutting teakwood trees belonging to state-owned PT Perhutani.

"It was Friday and most of the people were at the mosque for the noon prayer. My wife saw a group of policemen in a car randomly firing shots. The villagers ran to save their lives and then the officers set my house ablaze," Karmidi said in tears.

He said he had no idea why the uniformed men burned down his house.

Locals speculated the attack was in response to Karmidi's protest against the arrests of Herman and Sonip, who they praised for their roles in a dispute between village residents and PT Perhutani.

The villagers claim West Java's PT Perhutani Unit III appropriated teakwood trees they planted on a 2,000-hectare plot of land belonging to the village administration.

The dispute began in 1963 after the village administration asked for Perhutani's help in managing the land. The villagers were then obliged to plant teakwood trees, whose seeds were sold by Perhutani.

"In the 1990s, when the teakwood trees were ready for cutting, Perhutani prohibited villagers from cutting the trees. We were angry. We planted the trees, but Perhutani wanted to cut them," Karmidi said.

Herman and Sonip, acting as representatives of the villagers, expressed their anger by cutting seven trees before police arrested them. They are now being held at the Sukabumi Police station. (25/sur)