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Amnesty calls for probing alleged police brutality
Amnesty International Indonesia has urged the authorities to immediately investigate police use of unlawful force in various forms during recent nationwide protests against the controversial Job Creation Law.
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mnesty International Indonesia has urged the authorities to investigate police operations over the alleged use of unlawful force during recent nationwide protests against the Job Creation Law.
Together with Amnesty International’s crisis evidence lab and digital verification corps, the Indonesian team verified 51 videos depicting 43 separate incidents of police violence during protests that occurred between Oct. 6 and Nov. 10.
“Our examination of these incidents shows that police forces across Indonesia have committed appalling human rights violations,” Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said in a webinar on Wednesday.
A report by Amnesty breaks down the findings in separate sections for each form of alleged unlawful force, complete with an interactive map showing the incidents per location.
According to Amnesty’s records, at least 411 people fell victim to police violence in 15 provinces during the protests and 6,658 people in 21 provinces were arrested. Some 301 of the detainees, including 18 journalists, were reportedly detained “incommunicado” -- without access to the outside world. Many of those arrested were students.
The organization also recorded 18 people in seven provinces that were charged under the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law for protesting online between Oct. 7 and 20.
“There have been overwhelming videos and testimonies of police violence since day one of the protests. This is a sinister echo of the brutal crackdowns against students 22 years ago, at the end of the Soeharto regime,” Usman said.
The report notes the presence of many plainclothes police officers in the protest videos verified by Amnesty, some of whom reportedly incited violence.
Unlawful force applied by the police during the protests, according to Amnesty, includes beatings, improper use of tear gas and water cannons, incommunicado detention as well as torture and other ill-treatment.
At least half of the 51 videos, Amnesty claims, contain evidence of unlawful use of batons, sticks and other tools for beating by the police.
The report also found that the police had fired tear gas grenades and used water cannons in breach of international standards stipulating that dispersal may only be resorted to in exceptional cases and that the order must be clearly communicated.
Amnesty condemned the reported incommunicado detention of protesters, saying that, depending on the circumstances, such detention could constitute torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
In many of the videos Amnesty verified, protestors appear to be humiliated by being forced to duckwalk, while others are beaten unconscious.
“What we’ve seen recently around the world, especially since the protests in Hong Kong, is how compellingly useful video verification is when there are protests or crackdowns by security forces in an unlawful manner,” said the head of Amnesty International’s crisis evidence lab, Sam Dubberley.
The Bandung Legal Aid Institute (LBH Bandung) and Surabaya Legal Aid Institute (LBH Surabaya) received more than 200 reports in early October from protesters who said they had experienced violence. Both institutes said they had been denied access to provide legal assistance to the protesters.
“A strange incident that happened in Surabaya was police arresting a nonprotester who was just having lunch, asking him to take off his clothes and walk squatting, and intimidating him until he was injured,” said LBH Surabaya lawyer Ramli Himawan.
Tioria Pretty Stephanie of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said the police had randomly arrested people at the demonstrations to circumvent requirements for arrests, such as arrest warrants and time limits.
“The lack of evaluation of this excessive use of force will trigger a similar pattern for police officers when handling subsequent actions. The [Jobs Creation Law] is one, next year we may see other laws that the community disagrees with,” Tioria said.
Habiburokhman, a member of House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, said National Police chief Gen. Idham Azis, at the beginning of his term, had expressed his commitment before the House that the police would favor a persuasive approach rather than a repressive one in handling demonstrations.
“Violence against demonstrators has not changed since the New Order. It continues to occur when major issues are happening, and there is almost no evaluation of the procedures taken by the police,” Habiburokhman said. He suggested Amnesty report its investigation to the leadership of Commission III.
