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.