Jakarta – Sole top cop candidate Comr. Gen. Tito Karnavian has opposed legal plans for a new external unit overseeing the police's antiterrorism squad, saying current supervision is sufficient and only needs to be tightened.
Growing calls for such an oversight body has been made by activists, who have alleged that operations by the National Police's antiterrorism squad Densus 88 have been rife with human rights abuses.
Provisions on the formation of such an independent unit have been taken into account by House of Representatives lawmakers, who have been deliberating revisions to the 2003 antiterrorism law.
"Most of the political party factions want stricter supervision of Densus 88 operations," Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) party politician Muhammad Syafi'i, who chairs the House special committee for the antiterrorism bill revision, told Tito during a fit-and-proper test for his nomination on Thursday (23/06).
Responding to the plans, the current National Counterterrorism Agency chief said: "The current mechanism now in place and enough. It now depends on how we intensify the supervision."
Densus 88 is currently overseen internally by the National Police's general supervision division and the internal affairs division, as well as externally by the National Police Commission and the National Commission on Human Rights. The national police also has guidance written for each members, including the antiterrorism squad in a so-called-human-rights handbook.
"I will instruct the internal affairs division straight away to investigate once there is an allegation of abuse," Tito told House lawmakers, who later approved his nomination to replace retiring Gen. Badrodin Haiti.
The former Densus 88 chief also said he will team up with the National Commission on Human Rights to run programs aimed at upgrading the understanding his subordinates on the principles of human rights.