Security tightened after three murders in Buleleng
JAKARTA (JP): Two Bali villages remained under tight security on Saturday after three people were killed in a riot on Friday, Antara reported.
Police said 18 supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) under Megawati Soekarnoputri were injured.
Police in Denpasar identified the fatalities as I Made Sukasana, 55, a farmer; I Tamat, 60, also a farmer; and I Putu Arta, 40, the head of the Cempaga village where the riot took place, about 120 kilometers north of Denpasar.
"Everything's still under investigation," an officer told The Jakarta Post in response to questions of what caused the incident.
Antara quoted Buleleng Police chief Lt.Col. Nasser Amir as saying that 25 houses were damaged and five cars set on fire.
The chairman of the PDI provincial branch, Ida Bagus Putu Wesnawa, told the Post that Sukasana and Tamat were PDI supporters.
Asked whether the incident was politically motivated, he said his office was conducting an investigation into the matter.
He said that until more was known, the incident was considered "a brawl between villagers".
Putu Wesnawa said the three victims were buried at 11 a.m. local time on Saturday in their respective villages. The situation was still tense on Saturday night, with six platoons guarding the area.
He said two other PDI members who had been reported missing -- Ida Komang Yudana and I Ketut Moder -- had returned home.
He said the clash started on Thursday when seven PDI supporters from Banjar village visited a sick PDI executive in Cempaga, six kilometers away.
Following their arrival at about 10 p.m., Putu Wesnawa said the house of I Made Suwija, the executive of the party's Banjar district, was surrounded by hundreds of unidentified people threatening to attack the PDI members.
Other PDI supporters came to help, he said, but they were also trapped by people from neighboring villages. In the clash that lasted until dawn, Putu Wesnawa said two PDI supporters were killed, two went missing, while the Cempaga village head, I Putu Arta, was reportedly mobbed when he was passing PDI supporters in Banjar.
A meeting between PDI and Golkar executives on Friday night concluded that the clash was not one between political groups, and that they would work together to prevent similar incidents.
Police chief Nasser also said four people believed to have instigated the strife were being questioned.
Also on Friday, a clash among residents occurred in Rembang, Central Java, leading to six injured and the burning of one village office. Three homes were also damaged by hundreds of people expressing anger over the results of a village head election. The supporters of a village head candidate were told their candidate, Amari, running for Banoan village head in Sarang district, did not pass the selection test.
Sarang district head Asrori, said Saturday that about 200 of Amari's supporters suddenly attacked and burned the village office, the election site and three homes. They then approached a mosque and school. "But then they were blocked by a crowd of residents and the clash occurred," Asrori said, adding that the injured were still in hospital. The clash involved stones, sharpened bamboo staves and other weapons, he said. (imn/anr/har)