After Seeing Human Cages At Langkat Regent's House, Komnas HAM: This Case Is Getting Clearer

Langkat Regent's House/Photo: VOI

JAKARTA - The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) said that the finding of a human cage in the house of the inactive Langkat Regent. The issuance of the Wind War Plan is becoming clearer. However, they have not been able to detail the findings they got.

This was conveyed by Komnas HAM Commissioner Choirul Anam who announced that his party had visited the location of the human cage. Not only that, his party has also interviewed witnesses to the families of the residents and confirmed other things.

"After yesterday we saw firsthand the cage in the plantation behind the regent's house, we followed up by asking for information from various parties including witnesses, victims' families, infrastructure devices there," Anam was quoted as saying in a video uploaded to the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission's YouTube, Friday, January 28.

"This includes health and so on to make sure what exactly this incident happened," he added.

Anam said his party had asked several very significant things. Including whether there is violence or inhumane treatment and other things that have the potential to violate human rights.

After doing these two things, he said that Komnas HAM had obtained an overview of the alleged slavery committed by Terbit Plan. However, Anam did not want to go into more detail about their findings.

The reason is that they will still explore further about the cage that holds people suspected of being workers in Terbit's palm oil plantation.

"We can't tell yet what we got. However, the longer this case is getting brighter for us," said Anam.

"We just have to explore how far the cage is from the dynamics in the community. How far is the cage dynamic with the palm oil company owned by the Regent," he added.

In addition, Komnas HAM stated that it would explore further why many parties refer to the human cage as a place of rehabilitation for drug addicts.

"When and why did this happen, some people call it a rehabilitation center, some call it something else," said Anam.

As previously reported, the existence of a human cage suspected of being a form of slavery at the home of the inactive Langkat Regent Terbit Angin Angin was revealed after the KPK came there to carry out a hand arrest operation (OTT).

Instead of finding Terbit, the KPK team found a number of people confined in an iron cage. At that time they claimed to be oil palm workers on Terbit's land.

Later, the North Sumatran Police clarified the issue of slavery by stating that the cages were used to rehabilitate narcotics users.

The occupants of the cage are said to be working in Terbit's oil palm plantation and this activity is also based on the agreement of the family.