E. Kalimantan police chief replaced over Marangkayu incident
Tuesday, November 7 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
Insp. Gen. Drs. Togar M. Sianipar, former spokesman of the National Police, has assumed his position as East Kalimantan Police chief following a handover from Brig. Gen. Bachrumsyah conducted in Balikpapan on Monday.
The handover ceremony was witnessed by the Inspector General of the National Police, Insp. Gen. Drs. M. Nurdin, who represented the National Police chief Gen. Drs. S. Bimantoro.
Bachrumsyah was now placed in the National Police headquarters to head an agency that collects and processes data.
The removal of Bachrumsyah as East Kalimantan police chief after assuming the position for about four months - the shortest ever recorded for East Kalimantan Police chief - has drawn speculations.
Observers speculated that Bachrumsyah was removed because of the recent rioting in Marangkayu, located in a concession area of oil firm Unocal.
East Kalimantan Police spokesman Superintendent Faah Sumarno denied the speculation that the removal of Bachrumsyah had something to do with the Marangkayu case.
Faah explained that the change of leadership in East Kalimantan police was made following the upgrading the status of East Kalimantan Police from "Type B" to "Type A" that requires a provincial police chief with ranking of Inspector General, while Bachrumsyah is a police brigadier general or one star general.
But Faah's explanation still drew question as Togar M. Sianipar himself was a police brigadier general before he was promoted to head the East Kalimantan police.
As reported earlier, Marangkayu people made a sea and land blockage of access to Tanjung Santan, the site of Unocal. They demanded Unocal to compensate them Rp 2 billion for their lands that were polluted by Unocal's wastes.
Because their demand was turned down by Unocal, they closed the access to Tanjung Santan for 10 days.
But then Unocal asked the police help. Under the command of Bachrumsyah, the police then sent its mobile bridge and other police personnel to open the access to Tanjung Santan. And clashes could not be avoided. Six locals were shot, and some others were injured.
The people then took the case to the provincial legislative body. But because they were not satisfied with the legislative body, that they claimed to have sided with Unocal, they reported the case to the National Police chief, the National Commission on Human Rights, and some other parties. They demanded that Bachrumsyah be removed from East Kalimantan. (*)