Marines named suspects shooting

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 06/02/2007 8:51 AM

ID Nugroho and Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya, Jakarta

Thirteen marines have been named suspects in Wednesday's deadly shooting in Pasuruan regency, East Java, the Navy said Friday.

The head of the military police at the Navy's Eastern Fleet, Col. Totok Budi Santoso, said the 13 marines were suspects in the shooting deaths of four residents of Alas Tlogo in Grati subdistrict, not five as originally announced by the regency administration.

""After questioning them, we have named them as suspects,"" Totok told journalists.

He said all 13 were in military police detention.

""We will continue questioning the marines, as well as the victims and residents who witnessed the incident,"" he said.

The shooting was triggered by a protest over a disputed plot of land claimed by both the villagers and the Navy.

The dispute has been taken to the courts, with the Pasuruan District Court ruling in the Navy's favor. Residents have appealed the ruling and a decision is still pending.

Wednesday's shooting was immediately condemned by human rights groups and a number of lawmakers.

The Surabaya Legal Aid Institute, which is assisting residents in the land dispute, has demanded the Navy be transparent in investigating the shooting.

Athoillah of the institute said the results of its own preliminary investigation into the shooting had uncovered some discrepancies in the Navy's version of events.

He disputed the Navy's claim the residents were responsible for the incident by attacking the marines with rocks.

Athoillah also said there was some forensic evidence to indicate the marines fired directly into the crowd of protesting villagers.

The military says it has launched its own investigation into the shooting.

Indonesian Military head Air Chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto has also said the commander of the unit whose members were involved in the shooting has been replaced.

Lawmakers Djoko Susilo and Effendy Choirie of the defense and foreign affairs commission at the House of Representatives demanded a thorough investigation and for any marines found guilty in the incident to be brought to justice.

""The Navy is a command-based force, so you can say the shooting was ordered by the chief of the Eastern Fleet Command, and therefore the Navy chief should be held responsible for the incident,"" Djoko told The Jakarta Post here on Thursday.

Effendy urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to set up a presidential fact-finding team to investigate the incident and bring those responsible to military court.

""Victims and their families and all the people living on the disputed land are seeking justice from the Navy, which has illegally appropriated their land and shot the people,"" he said.

Effendy, former chairman of the House working commission that dealt with land disputes involving residents and the military, said the disputed land was part of some 10,000 hectares of land appropriated by the Navy through intimidation in the 1960s.

""Local farmers were forced to abandon the land supposedly for an airport project, barracks and training center, but in fact the land was used for a sugar plantation managed by PT Grati Bhakti Plantation and PT Radjawali.

""They (the residents) finally demanded the Navy return the land after learning they had been deceived, but the land was handed over to a private company for rent,"" Effendy said.

People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nurwahid said it was sadly ironic that weapons and bullets purchased using taxpayer money had been ""returned"" to the people in this bloody shooting.

Kusnanto Anggoro, a military analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the shooting was not surprising since the military has yet to change its mindset from time of the authoritarian Soeharto regime.

He and Effendy said that like other state institutions, the military had no authority to own land and that all disputed land should be returned to the people.

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