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After rallying to support Papua, protestors jailed, forced to listen to patriotic songs
The police claimed that they treated detainees well at the Mako Brimob detention center and that they did not use music to torture.
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People gather in front of the Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta on Aug. 28 following racial insults against Papuan students in Surabaya, West Java. (JP / Dhoni Setiawan)
P
atriotic Indonesian songs were playing in the National Police's Mobile Brigade (Mako Brimob) detention center in Depok, West Java, according to Jakarta Legal Aid Society (LBH Jakarta) lawyer Nelson Simamora, when he and other lawyers and friends of Surya Anta visited the activist, one of those detained for rallying to call for the liberation of Papua.
Surya, who is the spokesperson of the Indonesia People's Front for West Papua (FRI-WP), was arrested on Aug. 31 for allegedly committing treason by protesting in front of the Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta and other places on Aug. 28. Along with Surya, seven students from Papua involved in the same protest were also arrested.
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Yati Andriyani, who also advocated for the detainees, said that the legal team could not be sure if the songs were played specifically as a means of torturing the pro-Papua activists.
“We heard it when we were at the end of the visit and walking toward the car to go home. Therefore we could not make sure if the songs are played all day or every day and especially played for Surya and his friends,” she said.
Surya’s best friend, Suarbudaya Rahadian, a priest of the Salemba Blessing Community Church and editor of progressive Christians on the intellectual website Indoprogress, told the Post that Surya was being held in isolation.
“Surya Anta said he is detained in a different cell from the other detainees. He only can get out of the cell and see sunlight during an interrogation or a meeting with lawyers,” Suarbudaya said.
Suarbudaya confirmed that the patriotic songs are continuously played in the complex for all detainees to hear.
