Jakarta – The Yogyakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) says that in addition to the @Wadas_Melawan (@Wadas_Resists) Twitter account, eight other Twitter accounts belonging to Wadas Village residents have been suspended.
Until recently these accounts had been aggressively sharing information on the situation in the Wadas Village area in Purworejo regency, which became heated as a result of opposition to the presence of police there.
"The Wadas [resists] account was suspected. The remaining eight Wadas residents' personal accounts were also suspended", said LBH Yogyakarta Research Division Head Era Hareva Pasarua when contacted by CNN Indonesia on Wednesday February 16.
Pasarua said that the account suspensions began to be noticed by users several days ago. There were several residents who reported that their Twitter accounts were suspended at 2 am in the morning.
Pasarua said that they are currently attempting to communicate directly with Twitter over the matter. "We have only just now reported it to Twitter", he explained.
Although the Twitter accounts have been suspended, Pasarua said that the communication channels between the LBH advocacy team and Wadas residents have not been disrupted.
Wadas Village became the focus of national attention after hundreds of police were deployed there on Tuesday February 8. The police claimed that they had been deployed to escort a team from the National Land Agency (BPN) to measure the land for an andesite rock quarry to supply material for the Bener Dam project.
During the process however, police arrested scores of Wadas residents who were deemed to be provocateurs because they objected to the quarry. All of those arrested on Tuesday were returned home the following day.
Wadas residents have often expressed their opposition to the presence of security personnel and do not accept their village being turned into an andesite rock quarry.
The government and police claim that the actions taken at Wadas were in accordance with procedures and that the situation is conducive. They even labeled uploads on the @Wadas_Resists account on the situation there as being hoaxes. (DAL)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Selain Wadas_Melawan, 8 Akun Twitter Warga Wadas Juga Kena Suspend".]
