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Indonesian Farmers Shock Lawmakers With Alleged Massacres

December 14, 2011

Lawmakers were aghast on Wednesday as a group of farmers from Lampung told them about the alleged killing of a large number of their colleagues by a plantation company this year.

The farmers, from the Megoupak area of Lampung’s Tulang Bawang district, were accompanied by a retired general, Saurip Kadi, during their meeting with House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs.

Besides the horrifying tale, the farmers showed what they said was video evidence of several murders.

The killings are believed to have been carried out by hooded men clad in black.

“We are surprised and concerned by the case of the Tulang Bawang farmers in Lampung and will ask the government to coordinate with law enforcers on this,” said Azis Syamsuddin, deputy chairman of Commission III.

Another commission member, Bambang Soesatyo, said they would also question National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo at a hearing later on Wednesday.

“There appears to have been a massacre, conducted by PT Silva Inhutani and its henchmen,” Bambang added.

Silva Inhutani is a plantation company involved in a dispute with the farmers over land in Megoupak. The company exports wood but also plants oil palms and rubber trees.

Timur told lawmakers that the video footage was from two different events. The first, he said, happened in Mesuji subdistrict in South Sumatra on April 21 and the second in Lampung’s Mesuji district on Nov. 11. In the first case, police have already identified six suspects, Timur said.

Saurip, the retired general, said, “There has been an extension of the plantation but it has encroached on land that is owned by locals.”

He also said the company had sought the help of the police to help evict the farmers as well as to form militant groups. “When the people complained, the security personnel turned to intimidation,” he said.

The National Police’s chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Sutarman, said a team had been formed two days ago to investigate the case.

The chairman of the Presidential Working Unit for Development, Supervision and Oversight (UKP4), Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, said that although he had not yet heard of the alleged massacre, the claims should be investigated.

“This is a serious matter and cannot be handled like an ordinary case. Even more so when there are videos,” he said.

Ridha Saleh, from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said that his institution had already reported the case to the Lampung Police in November but that nothing had happened.

“We are going to remind them, and ask them to soon resolve the case,” he said.


(x the JG)

Lampung Claims Spur Action


December 15, 2011


The government moved quickly on Thursday to address the shocking allegations that farmers in Lampung’s Mesuji district had been murdered for their land.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had ordered the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs and the National Police to find out what actually happened in Mesuji.

“If the facts are as we have heard, action must be taken against any individual involved, be they government officials or security personnel or members of the public,” Julian said.

A team of lawmakers from the House of Representatives’ legal affairs commission, headed by Aziz Syamsuddin, will fly to Lampung on Saturday to investigate the claims.

The case came to the public’s attention after dozens of farmers from Mesuji, accompanied by retired military general Saurip Kadi, went to the House on Wednesday and alleged that 30 farmers had been murdered between 2009 and 2011 as part of attempts by a plantation company, Silva Inhutani, to evict them from their land. The group also showed a video purporting to show several killings and the bodies.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said on Thursday that the video showed separate incidents in Mesuji and Ogan Komering Ilir, South Sumatra, and had been edited to make the police look guilty.

“The intention was to show that the [perpetrators were police officers],” he said. “We will check the motive of the video [maker].”

He added that while seven people died in the clash in Ogan Komering Ilir seen on the video, there were no deaths in Lampung.

Tubagus Hasanuddin, deputy chairman of House Commission I, which oversees security affairs, also questioned whether the video was taken in Mesuji.

“First there are two locations, in Lampung and South Sumatra. Second, how could an amateur stand to watch people being decapitated,” he said. “I am a soldier and I can’t watch an animal being slaughtered.”

Tubagus, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said he first became aware of the dispute in 2009 and questioned why Saurip only came forward with the allegations two years later.

“I have told Saurip Kadi I want to talk to witnesses but until now he hasn’t provided anyone,” he said.

Saurip is known as a staunch critic of Yudhoyono. In 2008 the retired two-star general published a book, “Prioritizing the People,” which accused the president for caring too much about his public image.

The Lampung Police said on Thursday that two clashes had taken place in Mesuji this year between residents and officers on land belonging to Silva Inhutani, leaving two dead.

Lampung Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sulistyaningsih was quoted by state news agency Antara as saying that harsh sanctions had been imposed on officers who had opened fire on the residents in violation of procedures.


(from the JG)

IPW wants Malaysians probed in Lampung deaths

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Fri, 12/16/2011 9:13 AM


A police watchdog wants the government to investigate the involvement of Malaysian-based PT Pilva Inhutani in the killing of 30 residents of in Mesuji, Lampung in 2003.

Neta S. Pane, chairman of the Indonesian Police Watch, said the government should take firm actions against any Malaysian investors in indonesia who broke the law, tempo.co reported.

Malaysian palm oil investors in Kalimantan might also be involved in the slaughter of orangutans, he alleged.

Lampung residents presented their allegations about the brutal killings of 20 people in Mesuji to the House of Representatives’ Commission III overseeing human rights on Wednesday.

Thirty people were killed in 2003 after violence erupted when PT Silva Inhutani took the residents’ land to plant rubber and oil palm plantations.

"Mesuji killing videos" likely made in Thailand,

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Sat, 12/17/2011 4:11 PM

CBSnews is reporting that some parts of the reported Mesuji killings videoswere likely made in southern Thailand.

CBSnews reported that the uniformed men in the video, thought to bepolice Mobile Brigade special operations officers, were actually members of a local Pattani separatist group fighting the Thaigovernment. Pattani Malay was also heard in the videos, kompas.com reported.

Another video thought to have depicted a gruesome killing in Mesuji was also allegedly perpetrated by the Pattani separatists, CBS said.

Videos of mass killings were presented last week to House of Representatives' Commission III overseeing human rights by a group of Mesuji residents led by Maj.Gen. (ret) Saurip Kadi as evidence of the alleged murder of 30 local residents.

Lawmakers have dispatched a fact-finding team to Lampung to investigate the group's claims.