Makassar – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said Monday that police officers had committed human rights violations during a clash with local residents over a land dispute with a state plantation company in the South Sulawesi regency of Takalar.

The Sunday brawl in a sugarcane field belonging to State Plantation Company (PTPN) XIV, injured six residents and four police officers.

Commissioner Dedi Askari said his fact-finding mission discovered that the police had used disproportionate force in their handling of the incident, by firing on protesters at close range.

Two local residents, Jupri Daeng Tona, 30, and Haris Daeng Naba, 28, underwent surgery Sunday to remove bullet shrapnel. Witnesses said the clash started when villagers banned PTPN XIV workers from doing their jobs at the firm's plantation field in Timbuseng village, North Polongbangkeng district, claiming they owned the land.