Annisa Febiola, Jakarta – Amnesty International Indonesia said one of the dominant human rights violations during the 100 days of the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka administration was violence and extrajudicial killings by police officers.
Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid said this trend was a continuation of several cases involving the National Police or Polri and military or TNI institutions in 2024.
Amnesty International Indonesia found that from October 21 to December 30, 2024, there were at least 17 cases of extrajudicial killings by Polri and TNI officers. The number of civilian victims was recorded at 17.
"The emergence of extrajudicial killings shows that the new government has no serious intention to break the chain of violence by the authorities and is reluctant to break the chain of impunity in the police and TNI," Usman said in a written statement on Friday, January 24, 2025.
The data includes an attack by a group of TNI army personnel on civilians in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra on Friday night, November 8, 2024. The attack killed one civilian and injured several others.
On November 24, 2024, a vocational high school student in Semarang City, Central Java, Gamma Rizkynata Oktavandy, was shot dead by a member of the Semarang City Police Narcotics Investigation Unit, Second Inspector Robig Zaenudin. Meanwhile, two of his friends were injured.
"The Semarang police even created a false narrative that the victim was a gang member," said Usman.
As 2025 began, extrajudicial killings by officers continued. On January 2, Ilyas Abdurrahman, a car rental entrepreneur on the Tangerang-Merak toll road, was shot and killed by members of the Indonesian Navy (TNI AL). Three members of the Indonesian Navy have been named as suspects in the murder.
According to Usman, 2025 began with a deadly combination of police negligence in protecting civilians from the misuse of firearms by TNI officers. "It is just one of a series of extrajudicial killings that occur every year. This confirms that the new government is off to a bad start in enforcing human rights," he said.
Usman alluded to the habit of the National Police and TNI institutions of using the term "oknum" whenever their members are involved in criminal cases or human rights violations. According to him, this term tends to be used to avoid institutional responsibility.
In the case of the shooting of the car rental boss, the TNI even seemed to defend its members who had violated human rights. The TNI AL member was said to have been forced to defend himself by shooting because he had been attacked without evidence. However, the police reconstruction of the case found no mob violence before the shooting.
"It is clear that the shooting was outside the official duties of the TNI AL member. Efforts to defend the members involved are a continuation of the impunity rooted in the TNI institution," Usman said.
Most recently, on January 23, 2025, the Papua Police transferred the case of throwing Molotov bombs at the Jubi editorial office to the Military Police Detachment. However, Usman said the police had not yet provided information on the identity of the perpetrator.