Arientha Primanita, Ezra Sihite, Anita Rachman & Farouk Arnaz – The government moved quickly on Thursday to address the shocking allegations that farmers in Lampung's Mesuji district had been murdered for their land.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had ordered the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs and the National Police to find out what actually happened in Mesuji.

"If the facts are as we have heard, action must be taken against any individual involved, be they government officials or security personnel or members of the public," Julian said.

A team of lawmakers from the House of Representatives' legal affairs commission, headed by Aziz Syamsuddin, will fly to Lampung on Saturday to investigate the claims.

The case came to the public's attention after dozens of farmers from Mesuji, accompanied by retired military general Saurip Kadi, went to the House on Wednesday and alleged that 30 farmers had been murdered between 2009 and 2011 as part of attempts by a plantation company, Silva Inhutani, to evict them from their land. The group also showed a video purporting to show several killings and the bodies. National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said on Thursday that the video showed separate incidents in Mesuji and Ogan Komering Ilir, South Sumatra, and had been edited to make the police look guilty.

"The intention was to show that the [perpetrators were police officers]," he said. "We will check the motive of the video [maker]." He added that while seven people died in the clash in Ogan Komering Ilir seen on the video, there were no deaths in Lampung.

Tubagus Hasanuddin, deputy chairman of House Commission I, which oversees security affairs, also questioned whether the video was taken in Mesuji. "First there are two locations, in Lampung and South Sumatra. Second, how could an amateur stand to watch people being decapitated," he said. "I am a soldier and I can't watch an animal being slaughtered."

Tubagus, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said he first became aware of the dispute in 2009 and questioned why Saurip only came forward with the allegations two years later. "I have told Saurip Kadi I want to talk to witnesses but until now he hasn't provided anyone," he said.

Saurip is known as a staunch critic of Yudhoyono. In 2008 the retired two-star general published a book, "Prioritizing the People," which accused the president for caring too much about his public image.

The Lampung Police said on Thursday that two clashes had taken place in Mesuji this year between residents and officers on land belonging to Silva Inhutani, leaving two dead.

Lampung Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sulistyaningsih was quoted by state news agency Antara as saying that harsh sanctions had been imposed on officers who had opened fire on the residents in violation of procedures.