Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has named the police and companies as the top human rights violators in the country this year.

Komnas HAM chairman Otto Nur Abdullah said on Tuesday that the commission had received 5,442 reports on human rights violations between January and November, with 1,635 of them said to have been committed by police officers.

A staggering 893 reports filed dealt with discrimination and abuse during police investigations, while the remaining 134 reports complained about the procedure of arrest.

"Komnas HAM urges the National Police to restrain themselves from violence, to use a persuasive approach and to improve their ability to detect social conflicts," Otto said during a press conference at Komnas HAM headquarters in Jakarta.

This year, the commission also received 1,009 reports on human rights abuses allegedly conducted by companies. The reports said that the companies were involved in land disputes (399 cases), employment disputes (276 cases) and environmental pollution and damage (72 cases).

"The figures reflect that companies are among the non-governmental actors, besides mass organizations, that have the potential to be human rights offenders," he added.

Komnas HAM commissioner Natalius Pigai said he was concerned that many companies banned or strategically weakened labor unions to undermine salary rise demands.

Komnas HAM said that the figure of this year's report was 20.4 percent higher than last year's 4,502 cases. (yps/lfr)