The Indonesian military expressed regret Thursday over Wednesday's shooting of civilians by marine in Pasuruan of East Java province, which killed five people and wounded scores others.

Indonesian marines shot the villagers who were protesting over land ownership.

At a press conference held at the military headquarters here, military commander Air Marshal Djoko Suyanto admitted that the shooting were excessive acts against civilian and expressed a full regret.

He said that the settlement through investigation and legal process would be the right solution to the dispute between the marine and residents.

"The armed forces regrets and expresses condolences on the accidents, in which, if I am not mistaken, five people were killed, " he said.

The air marshal, however, defended that it was impossible that the marine officers shot directly at the crowd, saying that the bullets hit the residents were ricochet shots.

"Once again, I will stress that it was impossible that was deliberately conducted by officers to directly shoot the people. But the fact is there were death. I instructed an immediate settlement of the land dispute," he said.

The commander said the human right commission is welcomed to take part in the investigation.

Marine officers started shooting after villagers from Pasuruan in east Java gathered to rally against the development of land at the center of a bitter court dispute with the navy.

Source: Xinhua