Anita Rachman, Ezra Sihite & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Retired Indonesian General Saurip Kadi has said he is outraged by allegations disputing the authenticity of a video he says shows farmers being murdered in Mesuji, Lampung.
Saurip, who brought the case to public attention last week, said that he would soon bring the Mesuji farmers who witnessed the violence to speak out in public. "I know there are critics who say that the video has been edited," he said at a press conference on Monday. "In time I will explain everything."
National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said on Sunday that the police were "be coming increasingly convinced that the compilation of various incidents appears to be bent on showing that the police are brutal."
A joint fact-finding team will try to confirm reports that parts of the video screened at the House of Representatives by the group of protesting farmers may have been shot during an unrelated case of violence in southern Thailand.
"Whether that is true or not will be part of what we will verify," said Deputy Justice and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana, who heads the nine-member task force.
An analysis by the Associated Press was the first to suggest that parts of the recording came from southern Thailand.
The report, which was picked up by television channels such as CBS News, noted that one segment showed a man in military fatigues holding a severed head – a man who was speaking in what appeared to be the Pattani dialect of southern Thailand.
Saurip accused the government of politicizing the case by claiming that the video had been tampered with in an effort to smear his credibility. "Don't twist things around," he said. "Right now, there is a war of information. It is expected, I am not surprised. What matters is that the truth will be revealed in the end."
Saurip questioned President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's leadership, saying that as a former military man, the president should personally take charge of the investigation.
"I take pity on the soul of the late [General] Sarwo Edhie, my mentor, who happens to be SBY's father in law," he said. "This case has reached a critical level and he simply formed a fact-finding team headed by Denny Indrayana," Saurip added. "People know what this means: He is just buying time."
Separately, the House is investigating three land disputes between farmers and plantation companies, which is said to be the root cause of the violence.
Bambang Soesatyo, a member of House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, said the companies, Silva Inhutani and Barat Selatan Makmur Investama, had violated their licenses. Silva, he said, had been granted a 1996 expansion of its original Forestry Ministry permit that allowed it to annex 42,000 hectares, up from 33,000 hectares.
"The expansion resulted in the annexation of land that was previously managed by thousands of native farmers, and this has resulted in conflict between the locals and the companies," Bambang said.
Barat Selatan, the Golkar Party lawmaker added, was granted a license to manage 10,000 hectares of land. The company, however, was entitled to use just 3,000 hectares for palm oil production, while the rest was to be jointly managed with local farmers.
Bambang said that it was the third dispute – between plantation company Sumber Wangi Alam and farmers of Sodong village in Mesuji, South Sumatra – that had resulted in loss of life. Two farmers and five Sumber Wangi workers were killed in a clash in April this year, he said.
"It was purely a clash between the locals and civilian security guards working for the company," he said, adding that no police or military officials had been involved in the killing, as farmers had claimed.
Berry Nahdian Furqon, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the case should serve as a wake-up call for land management reform and for the National Land Council to be evaluated. He added that there were more cases of violence in other places also rooted in land disputes between locals and logging or plantation companies.