Team investigates Lampung riot

Team investigates Lampung riot

JAKARTA (JP): Three members of a government-sponsored joint
fact-finding team on the mid-May riots have found a similar
pattern of destruction in the unrest that hit Central Lampung,
Medan, Jakarta, Surakarta, Palembang and Surabaya concurrently.

Sri Hardjo of the office of the State Minister of Women's
Roles and Zulkarnain and Mulyanto from the Ministry of Justice
were in Lampung to investigate the rioting in Bandarjaya market
in Central Lampung on May 15.

The team met with staff members of the local Legal Aid
Institute in the provincial capital of Bandar Lampung, as well as
several activists and local officials. They also visited the
marketplace, Antara news agency reported on Friday.

The team said they found a pattern of destruction which was
similar to the disturbances in the other cities, including in the
ways the looting and sexual assaults occurred.

They quoted eyewitnesses as describing the presence of a crowd
of people in the market who suddenly started to damage buildings,
loot and sexually assault women.

Abi Hasan Mu'an, chairman of the legal aid institute, observed
that locals tended to take justice into their own hands out of
chronic frustration with the authorities' approach to dealing
with their complaints.

"Don't just pin the blame on the people for the riots because
they have been disappointed with the way the authorities handled
their problems in the past," he said.

Meanwhile, the police in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, have
detained 11 people for questioning over their alleged involvement
in riots in the provincial capital on Monday and Wednesday.

Lt. Col. Jeremias Sooai, chief of the Kupang police precinct,
said on Thursday the police was in the preliminary stages of its
probe.

"We are collecting evidence in the field. If evidence is
enough, the 11 will be ... processed as suspects."

He said police had also arrested a man suspected of setting
fire to a house in Monday's riot.

The police will also investigate the causes of an ongoing
conflict between residents of two communities, Nunhila and
Fatufeto, in the provincial capital.

Jeremias believed it would take time to resolve it peacefully
because it was prolonged and complicated.

Seven houses were burned down in the riots. (rms)