Second team flies to Flores on riot probe
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.