The Jakarta Globe, October 21, 2013.
Four policemen were hospitalized and 20 people were arrested following a clash over a disputed plot of land in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Monday.
Three of the police officers were burned, while a fourth suffered a head injury, after hundreds of angry residents hurled molotov cocktails, threw stones and shot arrows at the officers on guard.
The clash erupted after the officers attempted to execute a court verdict ordering the eviction of 32 families from a 3,570-hectare plot of land in the subdistrict of Mariso. The Makassar District Court ruled that the disputed land rightfully belonged to a woman identified only as Hamidah.
“All the [injured officers] have been admitted to Bhayangkara Hospital,” Makassar Police operations division head Adj. Sr. Comr. Muhammad Ridwan told Indonesian news portal kompas.com on Monday.
He added that the violent clash went on for three hours and ended only after police arrested 21 people, including an officer with the South and West Sulawesi Police, Comr. Frans Tendean, who, according to sindonews.com, was allegedly an agent provocateur in the conflict.
Police also broke through a barbed wire fence set up by the local residents around the land to allow an excavator to pass through and demolish their houses.
Police retrieved from the houses dozens of metal arrows and several unused molotov cocktails.
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ma 21 okt 2013 - 17:04