Farouk Arnaz – Six mid-ranking police officers have been named suspects in an internal police investigation of the shooting of civilian protesters at the Cinta Manis sugar plantation in South Sumatra that left a teenager dead and two others wounded late last month.

The officers are being questioned by the National Police's internal affairs division at the site of the shooting in Ogan Ilir district, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Anwar said on Tuesday.

"Two [of the officers] are commissioners and the rest are adjutant commissioners," Boy said. "From Brimob [the Mobile Brigade], only the detachment chief [has been named a suspect]." The officers will go to trial at a police disciplinary tribunal in South Sumatra during the next week, he added.

The police have said that some 120 police officers were being questioned over the shooting on July 27 at the plantation, which has been the source of a land conflict for decades.

Three people from nearby Limbang Jaya village were shot in the clash with the Ogan Ilir Police and the South Sumatra Brimob.

The police say they were patrolling around the plantation before the incident, and when they entered the access road to Limbang Jaya II village, people started throwing stones at them.

The police said they fired warning shots into the air and sprayed tear gas but failed to disband the mob. Residents later found a 13-year-old boy dead with a gunshot wound. A 40-year-old blacksmith and a 48-year-old housewife were also shot and in critical condition.

The sugar plantation has been a source of tension since state-owned plantation company Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) VII forcefully evicted 22 villages in the district to set it up in 1982.

Rights activists say PTPN VII used security forces to pressure residents to give up their farms but failed to provide decent compensation for the land.