A police tribunal in Palembang has ordered detentions ranging from two to three weeks for 22 members of the police’s Mobile Brigade who shot farmers with rubber bullets during a recent demonstration.
South Sumatra Police spokesman Snr. Comr. Abdul Gofur said Friday the ethics tribunal had ruled the officers had used excessive force in trying to disperse the protesters.
Eleven residents of Renggas village in Ogan Ilir regency were wounded when members of the Mobile Brigade and provincial police fired on them in an attempt to quell a riot on Dec. 4 last year.
The riot grew from a protest against state plantation company PTPN VII, which the farmers alleged had illegally expanded its lands.
The protesters set ablaze the company’s heavy machinery, trucks and office.
Gofur said the offending Mobile Brigade officers had been remanded at the Bukit Besar detention center.
“They were found to have violated regulations by firing rubber bullets at the farmers during the incident,” Gofur told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
“Their action was deemed a violation of human rights and dishonorable to the police force.”
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