Second team flies to Flores on riot probe

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

The National Police have sent another team to further investigate the recent shooting incident in Manggarai regency on the eastern island of Flores, which killed five people and injured 28 others.

"Today (Thursday), the three-member team from the National Police arrived in Kupang. They will gather additional data in Manggarai," East Nusa Tenggara Police chief Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang said.

He said they will join the fact-finding team from the East Nusa Tenggara Police who were still in Ruteng, the capital of Manggarai, to probe the March 10 incident.

Aritonang, speaking after attending Thursday's swearing-in ceremony of Kupang Regent Agustinus Medah and his deputy Ruben Funay, declined to release the results of the first investigation by the National Police team into the riot.

"I'm waiting for information from the National Police chief. The team must report to him, not me," Aritonang said.

However, he said that an investigation by his team showed that the Manggarai Police had complied with standard procedures in the fatal shooting.

"Based on the result of our field investigation, the police fired shots to defend themselves and the families of those attacked by a mob," he added.

The violence erupted when a number of police personnel opened fire on around 400 villagers who stormed the Manggarai Police Precinct in Ruteng to demand the release of seven villagers arrested at the police detention center.

The police station was also badly damaged in the incident.

According to the preliminary investigation, the police opened fire because the villagers had run amok and had attacked police personnel who were in the backyard of the police station.

The attackers were mostly coffee growers who were barred from planting coffee in a disputed protected forest.

Meanwhile, Manggarai Regent Anthonius Bagul Dagur rejected widespread demands that he be held responsible for the mayhem. "Why should I take the blame when it was other people who did that," he said.

He accused certain people of provoking the villagers to occupy the land and storm the police station. Anthonius did not name the parties he suspected of being behind the villagers actions.

A number of non-governmental organizations blamed the incident on the regent because he barred locals from farming in the forest and ordered the police to arrest seven farmers, the owners of a coffee plantation in the forest.

They argued that the regent was wrong in barring them from farming because the forest belonged to the local communities before it was declared a nature reserve.

Police have named at least 14 suspects, all civilians, in the incident. It was not clear why no police officers were charged in the deaths, but the district police chief in Ruteng was replaced and interrogated by the National Police team.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar has warned that he would take strong action if any police personnel had violated procedures in handling the incident.