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)