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Police yet to offer answers about nine who died during Jakarta riots
An apparent lack of progress has drawn criticism from rights groups, which condemn the police for not making getting to the bottom of the deaths their priority.
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Riot police apprehend a man believed to be one of the instigators of a riot in Jatibaru, Central Jakarta. (JP/Jerry Adiguna)
T
hree weeks after postelection riots gripped Jakarta, the police have yet to demonstrate any progress in investigating the deaths of nine people that occurred in the disturbances, choosing instead to focus on other aspects of the rioting.
In the most recent law enforcement press conference about the riots, held on Tuesday, National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. M. Iqbal only said that the investigation was ongoing.
“We have to convey that we suspect that the nine victims who died were rioters: attackers,” Iqbal said. “We will be as objective as possible, as detailed as possible in our investigation into all the events, not just focusing on these nine victims.
The apparent lack of progress has drawn criticism from rights groups, which condemn the police for not making getting to the bottom of the deaths their priority.
“It is very disappointing that instead of showing their progress in investigating how and why the victims died and who is responsible, the narrative from today’s press conference is still ‘rioters versus police',” Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This is very painful for the families of the victims who had expected the police to announce to the public who shot the victims, but instead [they] receive a one-sided explanation that makes it seem as if they were all ‘rioters’,” he said. “We have met a number of families and they expressed their hope that the killers are found and brought to trial. There has to be accountability for those nine deaths.”
Nine people were killed in the rioting, with some autopsies indicating that victims died from bullet and stab wounds. Some of the victims’ families refused to allow autopsies. One victim remains unidentified.
