Wadas Resident Deny Police Allegation Regarding Weapons

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Dozens of people who reside at the Wadas village in Purworejo, Central Java, were previously suspected to possess weapons as their village was surrounded by police personnel who were tasked to guard the government's land survey of a major dam construction project at the area. 

However, one of the locals who wishes to remain anonymous denied the reports and clarified that there were only four people who were accused of carrying sharp objects. 

"The allegation made by authorities that four people brought weapons is an attempt to twist the facts,"  the local resident said in a virtual press conference on Thursday, February 10, 2022. 

The initial allegation came from police to justify the arrest of 67 local villagers, 13 of which were children, one is a member of the LBH Yogyakarta legal aid, and an artist. 

The local resident said that the sickle, crowbar, and machete that police confiscated were taken from a motorcycle owned by local youth who was on his way to cut grasses to feed his cattle. The crowbar, he added, was confiscated from the house of a local resident who was being renovated. 

"Within 24 hours, the allegations from police were not proven," he insisted.

The Central Java Police spokesperson commissioner Iqbal Alqudusy previously said in a written statement that police who were mobilized at the Wadas village on Tuesday, February 10, 2022, "secured a number of people who brought weapons, they were taken to the Bener Police headquarter."

The police claim there were tensions between local villagers who supported the construction of the national strategic project and those who opposed it. Alqudusy said that a joint team consisting of police, military, and public order agency personnel were mobilized to Wadas to reduce the tension. 

MOH KHORY ALFARIZI