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After land dispute, arrested members of Jambi group reportedly intimidated
The members of the Batanghari Independent Union (SMB) who fled the area to escape police arrest said other members, who were not even involved in a recent clash with the company, have been searched by the police.
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Residents put up a banner to protest the construction of a road in a forest area located between South Sumatra and Jambi. (The Jakarta Post/Jon Afrizal)
M
embers of a mass organization involved in a land dispute with a company in Batanghari, Jambi, have reported “outrageous” intimidation by the police following their arrests.
The members of the Batanghari Independent Union (SMB) who fled the area to escape police arrest said other members, who were not even involved in a recent clash with the company, have been searched by the police.
Sopian (not his real name), who has left the province to avoid the police, said that the group’s leader Muslim and other members of the group who had been arrested received poor treatment from police.
“We are not terrorists. We just want to do farming,” he said on Friday on the phone, regretting the arrests of Muslim and others.
On July 10, the group attacked members of cooperatives, which owned a community forest permit to manage 3,143 hectares of land under PT Wirakarya Sakti’s (WKS) concession. Two of the three trucks carrying the villagers were damaged, dozens of them were injured.
Members of the group allegedly also attacked three members of a land and forest fire task force, two of whom were military personnel, and damaged the facilities of a camp in a District VIII area on July 13.
Fifty-two members have been named suspects, including Muslim and his wife, Deli Fitri, who have been charged with violating articles 170 and 363 of the Criminal Code for assault and theft, while the remaining seven were charged with violating Articles 170 and 406 of the Code for vandalism.
