President, VP asked to settle land dispute that turned tragic

Pasuruan, NU Online
After last week's fatal shooting in Alas Tlogo village, East Java, residents have asked the nation's leaders to visit the site themselves and help settle the case.

Last Wednesday's shooting over a disputed plot of land killed four villagers, including one pregnant woman and left eight wounded.<>

The land under dispute is claimed by both the villagers and Indonesia's Navy.

More than 1,045 families live on the land in question but the Navy has earmarked the area for a military training site.

Residents of Alas Tlogo village at Lekok district in Pasuruan, East Java, asked President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla to help settle the case.

They want the President and Vice President to gather for themselves first hand information about the condition of the disputed plot of land.

The residents made the call after appointing at least 100 people to represent them in a meeting with commander of the Navy's Eastern Fleet Read Adm. Moekhlas Sidiq on Monday.

In Monday's meeting the residents are expected to bring with them 403 pieces of evidence proving their ownership of the land.

On Saturday Kalla said the military training center could not be moved to other locations because one of the Navy's strong-arms was in East Java.

The 3,676-hectare plot of land has long been earmarked for training purposes, Kalla said.

Due to the limited availability of funds, however, the Navy has not been able to optimally develop it.

But head of Alas Tlogo village Imam Subnadi said Kalla's argument was unfounded because Kalla had not seen the land or the more than 1,000 families who called the area home.

"If he wants to know about it, he needs to come to the location," Imam said.

"The training center was just built three years ago and is so far made up of one office building."

Imam said the residents did not want to receive compensation offered by the Navy for their relocation.

Principally they did not want to move from the existing location, despite Kalla's invitation, he said.

The residents have asked the Vice President to re-evaluate the Navy's plan to build the military training center in the area.

"I'm sure if the country's senior leaders visit the land in question, they will think twice about the training site planned because it disturbs the lives of local residents," Imam said.

A legislator on Sunday was set to call on the need to look into the management of PT Rajawali and their deal with the Navy.

Deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Commission I on defense Yusron Ihza Mahendra said authorities had to probe the company and their scope of work with the Navy "because they were questionable".

"Why is the Navy guarding this company?" Yusron said.

"They said it was a regular patrol, but why was there a patrol in a field?" he told detik.com news portal.

PT Rajawali is the company working on the land in Alas Tlogo in Pasuruan, East Java.

The disputed area of land was being guarded by marines before a protest turned into a bloodbath.

Yusron, who has been in the area since Thursday, said they had to obtain a copy of the contract between the two parties.

The lawmakers also highlighted five findings from their observations of the area and investigations into the shooting.

They have questioned the Navy's defense that only warning shots were fired. The Navy has said the marines aimed at objects, not villagers, but that their bullets "bounced and shot residents instead".

Lawmakers said it did not make sense bullets would rebound at a 90 degree angle.

Yusron said a second Navy defense, that bullets had been fired into the air but then accidentally went through a door and hit a woman, was just as weak.

Lawmakers are further questioning the Navy's "patrolling" activities around the area.

And Yusron has found when the shootings took place, residents had only just completed their work in the fields, which he said dismissed the Navy's argument that residents attacked the marines first. (tjp/dar)