T

he claims by a group that at least 32 people have been killed since 2008 as part of a brutal conflict between villagers and palm oil companies allegedly backed by the police, cannot be verified.

A recent investigation by The Jakarta Post in areas where the killings allegedly occurred found only nine casualties, four of which were thought to have been shot and killed by the police.

The Mesuji killings have come under the media spotlight after former military territorial assistant Maj. Gen. (ret.) Saurip Kadi, led a delegation of local residents to the House of Representatives Commission II on legal affairs and laws, human rights and security on Dec. 14. The delegation showed lawmakers a purported video of killings in the area, including a beheading.

The group claimed that at least 32 people had been killed since 2008 as part of violence between Mesuji villagers and palm oil companies.

However, the Post’s investigation found that the deadly incidents took place in three different areas, were unrelated and involved different actors and causes.

The first incident occurred on Nov. 6, 2010, at the Pelita Jaya hamlet, Mesuji district, Lampung, where the police allegedly shot dead a villager resisting eviction.

The second occurred some 100 kilometers north of the hamlet on April 21, 2011, in Sungai Sodong village in Mesuji district, Ogan Komering Illir. Here, seven people were allegedly killed, with two allegedly shot dead by the police. It was in this area that Saurip’s video footage of the alleged beheading took place.

The third incident occurred on Nov. 10 in Tanjung Raya district in Mesuji regency, located some 50 kilometers north of Pelita Jaya. Here the police and military allegedly shot dead one villager.

The government-sanctioned fact finding team and the Human Rights Commission are still investigating the incidents, but the police and the military have repeatedly denied any involvement in the killings.

Saurip, who was a former supporter of Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra — the youngest son of former dictator Soeharto — for the Golkar Party chairmanship bid in 2009, has repeatedly insisted the incidents occurred on a large scale and also denied any political motivations.

There are also indications that the incidents were financially motivated, with some people attempting to leverage influence by exaggerating the incidents to help settle their land disputes with plantation companies, which paid law enforcement personnel and local authorities to help evict farmers whom, they claimed, were illegally occupying their land.

PT Silva Inhutani Lampung, which is at the center of the alleged abuses, said it had partly financed the personnel, but added that the funds were allocated only for “food and accommodation”.