Women question legality of arrests in Manggarai
Women question legality of arrests in Manggarai
Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara
Four women, the residents of Colol subdistrict in Manggarai
regency, who were arrested by security personnel on March 9,
filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Adj. Sr. Comr. Boni Tompoi,
the chief of Manggarai Police precinct.
The four women argued that the arrest, which led to the bloody
shooting the following day, was unlawful, because the women were
not guilty.
The four also claimed that the arrest had violated their
rights and demanded that the court punish officer Boni and
Manggarai regent Anthony Bagur Dagul for their role in the case.
They also demanded the police and prosecutors in Manggarai halt
the investigation into 28 local residents who have been named
suspects in the case.
Representing the four women, namely, Regina Rensi, Oviana
Asli, Sisilia Benu and Wilhelimina Teci, non-governmental
organization (NGO) activist Leo Mali said that the women were
wrongfully arrested, because they had no connection whatsoever
with the dispute between the Manggarai government and local
residents over coffee farming in the protected forest in the
regency.
The dispute centers on a coffee plantation run by local
residents in an area declared a protected forest by the Manggarai
government. The government ordered the destruction of the coffee
trees in the area recently, which prompted protests by locals,
who asserted that the land was their ancestral land.
According to Leo, the four women were at home cooking when
police personnel descended on Colol subdistrict here and arrested
them. "They were not guilty. We demand that the court, which will
hold the trial on Thursday, declare the arrest unlawful," Leo,
the coordinator of Justice and Peace Commission at Kupang
Diocese, said in a press conference here on Wednesday.
Other NGO representatives attending the press conference were
from the House of Women, Eastern Indonesia Women's Health Network
and Yaprita Kupang.
The four women were among seven people arrested by the police.
The three others were men.
After learning that the seven were arrested, hundreds of local
residents descended to Manggarai Police station the following day
later to question the police over the arrest. After a heated
argument, they stormed the headquarters, but the police fought
back and fired into the crowd killing six people.
Chief of East Nusa Tenggara Provincial Police Brig. Gen.
Edward Aritonang said that a team of investigators from the
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) would arrive in
Kupang on April 19, and would investigate alleged human rights
violations by the police personnel here.
Another team of investigators from the National Commission on
Women's Rights will also arrive in Kupang on Thursday to
determine whether the arrest of the four women here was lawful
and whether their rights had been violated.