'Third party' masterminded riot, rights body says

JAKARTA (JP): The recent riots in Tasikmalaya, West Java, and Sanggau Ledo, West Kalimantan, were masterminded by a "third party", the National Commission on Human Rights has found.

Announcing the results of their investigation into the incidents late Tuesday night, commission officials declined to name the alleged masterminds but urged the authorities to capture them soon.

Commission secretary-general Baharuddin Lopa said the culprits had managed to mobilize the crowds and escalate individual conflicts into mob violence.

The Dec. 26 Tasikmalaya riot was sparked by the beating up of three Islamic boarding school teachers by police officers. The teachers had been summoned by police to explain a claim they had punished a policeman's son at the school for stealing his classmates' money.

Angry mobs went on the rampage, attacking shops, churches, factories and police posts. The riot, which developed into an anti-Chinese attack, left four people dead.

Lopa said the rights violated in the incident included the right to religious freedom and the right to work.

He said the unrest stemmed from economic disparity. His team of investigators saw leaflets calling people to take to the streets.

He praised the way people were maintaining the peace and said Moslems and Christians had co-existed peacefully, a situation they would like to bring back to Tasikmalaya.

Lopa called for officials' to be sensitive to the matter and for security forces to anticipate potential unrest and coordinate accordingly.

He said the unrest in Sanggau Ledo, sparked over a personal dispute over a woman between people of two ethnic groups, was a social conflict whose root cause had not been entirely resolved.

The ensuing violence forced the evacuation of over 5,000 people to nearby Singkawang. Five people were killed and many houses were burned.

"The use of violence to solve problems is regrettable, it is essential to continually develop mutual understanding among the ethnic groups," Lopa said.

He said there had been violations to the right to life, freedom and the right to property in the incident.

"The system and process of resettlement has to be redefined together with the local people to increase their living standards," he said.

For both cases, he urged the government to take immediate action to reduce economic disparities. He praised officials' efforts in Singkawang to keep the situation under control.

Meanwhile, the court in Situbondo has charged two Moslems with masterminding the Oct. 10 religious riot that saw shops, a courthouse and 25 churches attacked in the small town.

The two were among the 54 people tried on charges of rioting.

In Jakarta, senior lawyer Frans Hendra Winarta said law enforcement, an equitable social and economic environment and real awareness from officials about the problems affecting Indonesia were the keys to maintaining stability.

He told The Jakarta Post the cause of the recent unrests in Situbondo, Tasikmalaya and Sanggau Ledo stemmed from economic disparities and a legal and political system that did not truly meet the people's aspirations.

In addition, the likelihood of outbreaks of violence became greater when people's rights were reduced, denied and ignored, he said. (01)