By ANTARA News,
Jakarta : Indonesian police committed human rights violations during a deadly crackdown on protesters in a land dispute this month that killed at least one child, the country’s rights watchdog said Saturday.
An investigation by the National Human Rights Commission found police violently supressed a protest by villagers in Riau province, razing around 500 homes in a clash that killed at least one young child, deputy commission chief Ridha Saleh told AFP.
“We’re asking police to take legal action against the personnel that carried out these actions,” Saleh said of the December 18 raid to evict residents of Suluk Bongkal village on Sumatra island.
“These are actions that violated human rights. They destroyed homes, hit people, forced them to vacate their land,” he said.
Rights group Amnesty International had urged Indonesia to investigate the crackdown, claiming that two children had been killed in the clash.
It also said police fired tear gas and bullets during the clash and that a helicopter dropped what appeared to be a fire accelerant on homes to aid their destruction.
Saleh said the rights commission, which is still investigating the crackdown, had yet to find evidence that a second child had been killed or that police used live ammunition or helicopters.
However, investigators found police had deliberately destroyed homes by setting fire to them and using demolition equipment.
The commission also called for the release from police custody of 81 residents facing possible charges of inciting violence and destruction of property.
The clash stemmed from a land dispute between villagers and pulpwood company PT Arara Abadi, which is linked to Asia Pulp & Paper, one of the world’s biggest paper producers and part of the massive Indonesian conglomerate the Sinar Mas Group.
Arara Abadi has claimed rights to the land after being granted permission to develop the area by the forestry ministry in 1996 but villagers and activists say the development is illegal.