The Jakarta Post, Poso, Central Sulawesi, Tue November 06 2012,
A mother of two children could not conceal her contempt for the police while displaying a 3-centimeter scar left near her left eye.
The woman, who requested anonymity citing fear of reprisals, claimed that she was struck by a police officer during a counterterrorism raid in Poso, Central Sulawesi.
“Why me? If the police had evidence that I did something illegal, then just arrest me. I can’t accept their arrogant and brutal acts against innocent civilians like me,” the woman said.
Her run-in began when she heard a ruckus outside her house in Kayamanya on Saturday at noon. “Suddenly somebody shouted ‘Anybody here?’ I was a little shocked and I didn’t immediately open the front door. To my surprise, a police officer holding a rifle kicked in the door when I was just about to open it. As a result, my face was slammed and heavily bloodied,” the woman, who was wearing a burqa when she was interviewed by The Jakarta Post on Monday, said.
“I was then violently pushed aside by the officer. It was really rude, especially given that I am a woman.”
The woman, along with six other Poso residents who claimed to be the victims of police brutality, are now receiving treatment at Poso Regional Hospital.
Another victim, Jamil, an Islamic cleric in Poso, suffered more severe injuries. He claimed he had been kicked, trampled and dragged by police.
Jamil said he was detained at Poso Police headquarters for more than six hours. “If I had been detained overnight, dozens of people from Tanah Runtuh were going to come to the police station to demand my release,” he said, referring to a hamlet on the outskirts of Poso City that police believe hosts Muslim extremists.
A group of local lawyers led by Azriadi Bachry Malewa, the director of Poso Legal Aid Foundation, said they would use doctors’ reports to file complaints against the police. The lawyers also plan to sue the police and file complaints with the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).
“The police claimed their operation in Poso was to enforce the law. But they themselves violated the law in their operation,” Azriadi said.
The police, led by officers from the National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit and the Indonesian Military (TNI), have been conducting operations in Poso for more than a week, looking for the perpetrators of several violent incidents in Central Sulawesi in the past three months.
On Saturday, Densus 88 officers clashed with local residents who protested the killing of Abdul Halid Tumbingo, 27.
Halid, a Poso native, was killed by the police, who claimed that the Poso Forestry and Plantation Agency employee was involved in a series of violent incidents in Poso.
Some local residents who claimed to have witnessed Halid’s killing said that he was shot three times. “Halid fell after his leg was shot. But then the already disabled Halid, as he lay on the ground, was shot again, two times,” said an eyewitness who declined to be identified.
The police have killed two suspects and arrested seven other in the past week.
Robi Sugara, a terrorism analyst from the Barometer Institute, said the police’s violent methods could backfire. “The extremists’ network in Poso has actually been weakened and fractured. But the violence by the police might reunite them,” Robi said.
di 6 nov 2012 - 6:30