Unease grips South Sulawesi district after shooting

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, South Sulawesi

The South Sulawesi district of Kajang in Bulukumba regency was tense on Saturday, a day after police shot a resident who was part of protests over disputed land.

Aso bin Susa was shot in the leg by officers from the Mobile Brigade conducting a search for about 200 local residents who had tried to reclaim disputed land from rubber plantation company PT London Sumatra (Lonsum) on Friday.

"The residents were forced to kneel down at gunpoint, but when Aso stood up one of the police officers shouted to the other officers that Aso had a bomb in his bag.

"The farmer panicked and attempted to flee, at which point the police shot him," Amrin Salasa of the Bulukumba People's Council, a non-governmental organization, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Aso was taken to the Bulukumba General Hospital for treatment, while four other residents were arrested for the possession of sharp weapons.

It was the second incident in the last several months involving police and local residents, who have been in a dispute with the plantation company over a plot of land since 1997.

On July 21, police shot and killed two Bulukumba residents during a violent protest over the land. The National Commission on Human Rights is investigating the incident.

Amrin said the residents gathered at the plantation company on Friday to clear the disputed land for the upcoming planting season.

The residents pulled out poles marking the ownership of the land and filled in holes where rubber tree seedlings were to be planted by the company.

Amrin said the company should avoid all activity on the land until the dispute is settled.

Some 20 Mobile Brigade officers arrived at the scene to disperse the residents, telling them the land belonged to PT Lonsum.

Bulukumba Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Tigor Situmorang said Aso was shot after he ignored police orders.

"When he resisted arrest we had no choice but to shoot him. He was also carrying a bow," Tigor said.

He said that in 1997 the Supreme Court ruled that the residents had a right to 200 hectares of land in the area, which did not include the land PT Lonsum has turned into a rubber plantation.

"Legally, the residents cannot claim the land belonging to PT Lonsum," Tigor said.

He said a number of people wanted by the police since the previous incident in July were behind the protest on Friday.