Jakarta – Lampung Police have punished two officers for shooting at residents and killing one during an incident on an oil palm plantation in Mesuji, Lampung, last month. However, the case of the two officers will remain internal.

Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sulistyaningsih said on Sunday that the two police officers, Adj. Comr. Wetman Hutagaol and Adj. Second Insp. Dian Permanadua, would be detained for 14 days and have their promotion postponed by a year.

"They both were proven to have committed violations in the shooting [on Nov. 10]," she said as quoted by tribunnews.com. However, Sulis said that their case would be processed internally and would not be taken to court.

"This is because the two members did not intentionally hurt the residents. It was a [spontaneous] reaction on the field. So, they will not be named suspects and will be sanctioned by the ethics council," she said.

The riot began when police officers patrolling the PT Barat Selatan Makmur Investindo oil palm plantation found around 100 residents allegedly stealing oil palm fruit on the plantation.

The residents, who felt that they had a right to the fruit because they consider the land theirs, fought back when the police attempted to arrest them.

Several police officers fired warning shots when the residents reportedly threw rocks at them and threatened them with sharp weapons. Several shots were fired at the crowd, killing one resident named Jailand and injuring others.

Mesuji district is on the border of South Sumatra and Lampung provinces.

The incident was separate from a conflict in the South Sumatra side of Mesuji district, where clashes between locals and oil palm plantation company PT Sumber Wangi Alam claimed the lives of five workers and two local residents in April. (awd)