Nivell Rayda & Farouk Arnaz – The Indonesian police's abysmal human rights record took yet another hit on Monday with the revelation that almost a quarter of all human rights complaints made last year were because of alleged police brutality.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said that throughout 2010 it received more than 5,600 public complaints, 1,300 of which accused the police of some sort of rights abuse.
"The majority of complaints directed at the police were linked to the right to access to justice, the right to security and to live free from fear," said Ifdhal Kasim, the commission chairman.
Among the more high-profile human rights cases Komnas HAM is probing is the attack earlier this month by a mob on a small Ahmadiyah community in Pandeglang district, Banten, which left three of the sect's members dead.
The police are widely accused of failing to protect the victims despite having advance knowledge of the attack.
Human rights activists say the police look set to top the Komnas HAM list for most rights abuses by the end of this year, thanks in large part to a regulation issued by the National Police allowing officers to fire live ammunition to keep riots under control.
The regulation was put into use this year when police shot six unarmed farmers in Jambi province. Police claimed the farmers were trespassing on a privately owned oil palm plantation and suspected they might be thieves.
The Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial) said the police should refrain from firing live ammunition at rioters, calling instead for the government to enact the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
The principles, adopted by a UN congress in 1990, stipulate the need for non-lethal weapons to counter riots and brawls and for the government to ensure that abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offense.
Imparsial has recorded at least 135 cases of excessive use of force by the police since 2005.
Surprisingly, the military, which has a long history of rights violations, including a video that appeared on the Internet of soldiers torturing Papuan civilians last year, finished only eighth in the Komnas HAM list with 203 complaints last year.
"The low number of complaints doesn't reflect the seriousness of the violations, nor does it reflect changes and reform within the military, because the victims have not received full justice," Ifdhal said.
Three of six soldiers implicated in the torture video were eventually court-martialed and sentenced to between eight and 10 months in prison, angering human rights activists in Indonesia and abroad.
"The military still enjoys impunity," said Mugiyanto Sipin, from the group Solidarity for Missing Persons. "The number of people affected by rights violation involving the military may be low, but the culture is still the same as during the Suharto era."
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam declined to comment on the Komnas HAM data, saying he had not yet studied it.