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Ten ‘unlawfully killed’ in Indonesia election riots: rights agency
JAKARTA, Oct 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Ten people, including several teenagers,
were killed in Indonesia’s post-election riots, the human rights commission
said Tuesday, as it accused police of beating up protesters.
In its final report on the May riots, the agency Komnas HAM said four
victims were underage and most had been shot in the capital Jakarta and
demonstrations in Kalimantan, Indonesia’s section of Borneo island.
Indonesia’s rights commission called on police to find the perpetrators,
who it suspected were “actors trained, organised and professional in using
guns”. It did not elaborate.
“This is a tragedy,” commissioner Beka Ulung Hapsara told AFP.
“These are unlawful killings — or killings that took place outside legal
mechanisms — and that violates the criminal code,” he added.
The commission said it did not suspect authorities were behind the
shootings.
But it accused police of using unnecessary force against protesters,
including minors.
“The police used violence against children who joined the rally (in
Jakarta) during which they said that they were beaten and kicked when
arrested,” according to the report.
A Jakarta police spokesman declined to comment, saying that authorities
had yet to see the agency’s report.
Supporters of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto took to the
streets after Indonesia’s Joko Widodo won re-election in the world’s third-
biggest democracy. Police detained some 465 people during two nights of
street battles that paralysed central Jakarta, leaving hundreds injured, the
rights agency said.
Also Tuesday, police on the island of Sulawesi said a half dozen officers
had been slapped with three-week suspensions for bringing guns to protests
last month in Kendari city, where two students died.
“They (the officers) were found guilty of not following orders by bringing
firearms” to the rally, said Southeast Sulawesi police spokesman Harry
Goldenhardt.
The force did not accuse officers of killing the students.
The pair died amid nationwide protests against a host of divisive legal
reforms, including banning pre-marital sex and weakening the anti-graft
agency.
Hundreds were injured in the demonstrations with police also accused of
brutality against protesters.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1515 hrs