TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Police suspect victims involved in riots before killed
Three 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
Change Size
T
span>Three 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.
Police have been adamant that the the National Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) forces that were deployed during the rioting were only armed with rubber bullets and tear gas, not lethal bullets.
“If someone used lethal bullets it was not from the security forces,” Iqbal said shortly after the riots.
Of the nine victims, four were still teenagers: Harun Al Rashid, 15, M. Reyhan Fajari, 16, Widianto Rizky Ramadan, 17, and Adam Nooryan, 19. Harun, Reyhan and Widianto were all still in school, while Adam was working as a barista.
The other identified victims also had no apparent history of violence. Bachtiar Alamsyah, a 23-year-old Tangerang resident who suffered bullet wounds to the chest, was working at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, saving money to go to university, family members said.
Sandro, a 31-year-old native of Jambi, owned a store in Tanah Abang, where much of the rioting occurred.
Farhan Syafero, also 31, was described a devoutly religious man and an Islam Defenders Front (FPI) symphatizer who worked odd jobs, including as an online taxi driver.
Abdul Ajiz, 27, an FPI member from Pandeglang, Banten, told his father, Johani, that he was going to Jakarta to meet friends and family. Johani told a local news site that his son mostly spent his time at the local pesantren (Islamic boarding school).
In contrast, the police have spent a significant amount of time expounding about an alleged plan to assassinate four state officials and the head of a polling organization.
Eight people have now been named as suspects for conspiracy and illegal arms possession related to the alleged aborted assassination plot, including former Army general Kivlan Zen and businessman Habil Marati.
The intended targets have been identified as Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto, State Intelligence Agency (BIN) head Budi Gunawan, a former police general and creator of the Densus 88 counterterrorism squad, Gories Mere, and Yunarto Wijaya, the executive director of Jakarta-based pollster Charta Politika.
Police spent the bulk of Tuesday’s press conference displaying videos of the alleged assassins divulging details about the plot. Two of the suspects said they were recruited by Kivlan and provided with money to purchase weapons.
One suspect, Irfansyah, said that another suspect, Armi, who led the team, had actually pawned his weapon before the assassination was supposed to be conducted.
“He said ‘I pawned it to cover my rent and for household expenses’,” Irfansyah said in the video.
He said that he and Yusuf, another suspect, waited for further instructions from Armi, but received none. “So we decided that maybe our task was over so we just split the rest of the money we received between us and went home.”
Police also revealed further details on a foiled weapons smuggling attempt by retired general Soenarko, which were to be used during the riots.
A report from Tempo weekly also implicated a former Army Special Forces (Kopassus) member, Fauka, in mobilizing people to attend the postelection rally that eventually turned into riots. Iqbal said that police would summon Fauka for interrogation.
However, neither Kivlan’s team, nor Soenarko, nor Fauka have been implicated in the deaths of the nine victims.
“We are in the progress of connecting the dots and we will reveal everything in due time,” Iqbal said.
