Ina Parlina and Oyos Saroso, Jakarta/Ogan Komering Ilir – A special team dispatched by the House of Representatives has confirmed that nine people were killed in connection with land disputes in the Mesuji area in Ogan Komering Ilir, South Sumatra, and Lampung.
Seven were killed in South Sumatra, while another two were found dead right across the border in Lampung.
Aziz Syamsuddin, deputy head of House of Representatives Commission III on law, human rights and security, said that the five victims in South Sumatra had died in a clash between local farmers and informal security forces working for palm-oil plantation company PT Sumber Wangi Alam (SWA).
Five of the victims were company officers while another two were villagers. Two of them were beheaded. "The two beheaded persons were from security forces at the company," Aziz told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
The incident occurred in April 2011 due to a land dispute. Gathering their facts from interviews with local residents and officials, Aziz said that the team could not be sure of the causes of death of the other five victims. Shooting incidents might have occurred, he said.
Mesuji is an area located on the border between the provinces of Lampung and South Sumatra. Two videos played before members of the Commission III on Wednesday shocked the public as they viewed alleged mass killings in the area.
Representatives of Mesuji residents and members of their advocacy team claimed that at least 32 people had been killed since 2008 as part of alleged brutal violence between Mesuji villagers and oil palm companies.
The Associated Press' report on Friday suggested that one clip had been spoken in Pattani Malay. Aziz said in the Lampung's part of Mesuji the lawmakers' team also found that two people died in November 2010 in a similar dispute between locals and palm-oil companies.
"The two victims were informal security forces; one from oil palm plantation firm PT Silva Inhutani and one from PT BMSI [Barat Selatan Makmur Investindo]," he said.
Aziz said that his team would soon summon the National Land Agency (BPN) head and the forest minister and both local administrations to evaluate the permits of the three companies.
Two other fact-finding teams investigating the Mesuji case, however, had yet to find evidence of any killings in the area.
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioner Johny Nelson Simanjuntak, who just came back from investigating the case in Lampung, said that for the time being, his team had found no indication of beheadings or killings of any kind in Lampung.
Komnas HAM sent the first team to the site to investigate the cases. "It was a matter of an eviction in a land dispute between farmers and three companies: PT Silva Inhutani, PT BMSI and PT Lambang Jaya, involving PAM Swakarsa [civilian militia]," he said.
Meanwhile, the government's official fact-finding team had just started collecting evidence for its investigation. A team member, Indriaswati Saptaningrum, who is a director of non-governmental organization Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), said the authenticity of the videos had yet to be investigated.
In Sodong village, the investigations into the alleged killings have caused anxiety among residents. "There is news from TV that the police are searching for residents," said Mangku Radin, a resident.
The news circulated among residents that the police were searching for eight residents suspected to have been behind the killings.