Farouk Arnaz & Ismira Lutfia – Under mounting public pressure to quickly solve the violent attack on an antigraft activist last week, the National Police on Monday promised rights activists the first arrests would be made this week.
The vow was made during a closed-door meeting between several rights and antigraft organizations and National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri at police headquarters.
"The police chief asked us to be patient, because they promised to make arrests this week," Usman Hamid, former head of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), told reporters after the meeting.
Usman, who came with representatives from several nongovernmental human rights and anti-corruption organizations, quoted Bambang as saying that the group behind the attack had been identified and evidence was being gathered to allow for their arrests.
However, he said Bambang had not elaborated on their identities or motives.
Indonesia Corruption Watch activist Tama Satya Langkun was attacked in the early hours of Thursday by four unidentified men. Tama suffered serious injuries in the brutal assault.
The attack came just days after Molotov cocktails were thrown at the office of Tempo, a weekly magazine that recently reported on suspicious bank accounts belonging to several high-ranking police officers.
The attempted firebombing and the assault on Tama prompted a public outcry and led President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to call for thorough police investigations.
"We asked the police to be transparent in their investigation of this case. The National Police chief has promised us the case will be resolved within the week," said Danang Widoyoko, from Indonesia Corruption Watch.
Usman said: "We wanted a clear explanation about what happened to our friend Tama and, if possible, we want to get involved in the investigation."
He said Bambang had also promised to announce the results of separate investigations into more than 1,000 suspicious financial transactions involving police officers, including some linked to the bank accounts in the Tempo report.
Bambang told the activists that the announcement would cover which accounts had been investigated and which cases had been resolved or dropped due to a lack of evidence.
Hendardi, from the Setara Institute, who was also present at the meeting, said police would have to work to convince people they were not involved in the two attacks.
"The police have to be serious in unraveling these cases, because only by doing so and providing a transparent explanation of what took place, will the suspicion evaporate," Hendardi said.
Bambang earlier asked the public not to jump to conclusions and blame police for the attacks.
Meanwhile, religious leaders on Monday spoke out against the increasing cases of violence against journalists and human rights and antigraft activists in the country, and the authorities' perceived lack of seriousness in solving these cases.
"We have the impression there are systematic attacks aimed at them," said Abdul Mu'ti, from the Islamic group Muhammadiyah.
Speaking at a news conference with other prominent leaders from various faiths, he said those behind the attacks should be exposed "as soon as possible."
Father Benny Susetyo, from the Indonesian Bishops Conference, said the country "is becoming a place that allows thugs to terrorize activists over their quest to uphold justice and human rights."
"We should not bow to people who want to ruin the country, and we should not let corruption eradication be compromised," he said.