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Police slammed for ‘repressive’ arrest of Wadas villagers
The police operation that led to the arrest of dozens of residents of Wadas village in Purworejo, Central Java, on Tuesday has been widely condemned.
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Hundreds of Surakarta Police personnel attend a call for readiness ceremony in Central Java in 2018. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
T
he police operation that led to the arrest of dozens of residents of Wadas village in Purworejo, Central Java, on Tuesday has been widely condemned. It was the latest in a series of what are perceived as repressive acts against Wadas villagers, who for the past four years have protested against the plan to mine andesite in their village for the construction of a dam. The villagers are concerned about the impact of the mine on their local environment.
According to the police a total of 250 military, police and Public Order Agency personnel were deployed to the village on Tuesday morning to protect 70 National Land Agency (BPN) and local agricultural agency officers planning to conduct surveys for the dam project.
However, throughout the day the security personnel arrested a number of villagers for gathering and for carrying sharp weapons, according to the Central Java Police. Kompas.com reported that the villagers denied carrying any weapons, claiming were in fact farming using agricultural implements. Police said 64 villagers were arrested.
Civil society groups, including the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI), have condemned the police action.
The country's largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, have also issued statements calling for an end to repressive actions and for the security personnel to leave the area.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) condemned reported violence by the security personnel against villagers and against legal representatives of residents who are opposed to the mining plan.
“We call on [the national agencies] to delay the surveys, and the provincial police chief to pull back the security personnel and to thoroughly evaluate the security approach,” Komnas HAM commissioner Beka Ulung Hapsara said in a statement on Wednesday.
