Jakarta, – The National Commission on Human Rights says acts of violence involving National Police remain frequent, despite the law enforcement agency's agreement to promote and protect human rights.

Other state institutions like the military and public order officers trailed far behind.

The report said police committed acts varying from violent arrests, abuse of power, molestation, rape and sexual harassment, to domestic violence, murder, evictions and corruption.

Commission deputy chairman M. Ridha Saleh said the rights body would meet National Police chief Gen. Sutanto to discuss the report.

"The meeting will be part of our efforts to prevent violence and seek a new cooperative approach with the police," Ridha told The Jakarta Post.

The commission, he said, had written to the police to initiate investigations into the cases. "The initial investigations will determine whether those violations can be classified as human rights abuses," Ridha said.

The commission will use the report to determine the tendencies and patterns of acts of violence, and to investigate motives behind them, Ridha said. "This will help us formulate recommendations for law enforcement agencies and internal regulations against offending parties," he said.

A former spokesperson for the National Police, Insp. Gen. Sisno Adiwinoto, asked the commission to differentiate between human rights violations and ordinary criminal cases.

"Don't mix the two up. Not all acts of violence can be classified as human rights abuses," said Sisno, who was installed as South Sulawesi Police chief last week. Sisno said human rights violations included war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

"So, if a police officer is accused of shooting the wrong person, it is a case of negligence and should be classified as a criminal matter, rather than a human rights violation," Sisno said.

The high number of cases of violence involving police officers, compared to the military and public order officers, does not necessarily mean the police is the most violent state institution, he said.

The commission report says the military was responsible for 18 cases of rights abuses, while four were linked to public order officers.

"It's not fair to say police committed more violations than public order forces. People should first compare the total number of public order officers to the number of police officers and calculate the ratio between the two," Sisno said.

He regretted the police were being associated with violence. "The police belong to the public. If the police need improvements, then let's work together for that," he said.

Indonesian Police Watch chairman Neta S. Pane said police needed to work harder to change their attitudes when dealing with the public in order to regain their trust. "Any efforts will be useless if police continue to resort to violence," Neta told the Post.

While human rights education has been introduced to the Police Academy, it had not been well implemented by officers in the field, he said.

"Police officers are taught about human rights, but they don't put this into practice because supervision from higher level officers has been weak," Neta said. (dia)