Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Indonesia. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Indonesia U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/indonesia/
[accessed 25 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT NGOs reported that
police used excessive force during detention and interrogation. Human rights
and legal aid contacts alleged, for example, that some Papuan detainees were
treated roughly by police, with reports of minor injuries sustained during
detention. National police
maintained procedures to address police misconduct, including alleged
torture. All police recruits undergo training on the proportional use of
force and human rights standards. The Commission for Disappeared
and Victims of Violence (KontraS), a local NGO,
reported 921 cases of police brutality reported to it between July 2019 and
June 2020, resulting in injury to 1,627 persons and 304 deaths. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Overcrowding was a
serious problem, including at immigration detention centers. According to the
Ministry of Law and Human Rights, as of January there were 293,583 prisoners
and detainees in prisons and detention centers designed to hold a maximum of
133,931. Overcrowding posed hygiene and ventilation problems and varied at
different facilities. Minimum- and medium-security prisons were often the
most overcrowded; maximum-security prisons tended to be at or below capacity.
Prison officials reported that overcrowding was one cause of a February
prison riot in North Sumatra. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/indonesia/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 17 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? Military service
members accused of crimes against civilians are
tried in military courts, which lack impartiality and often impose light punishments.
Security forces regularly go unpunished or receive lenient sentences for
human rights violations. In October 2019, six police officers involved in the
deaths of two student protesters in Kendari
received administrative punishments in a disciplinary hearing. Deadly
confrontations between security forces remain common in Papua and West Papua. Torture by law
enforcement agencies is not specifically criminalized. Prisons are
overcrowded and corrupt, leading to riots, protests, and jailbreaks. Violence
related to natural resource extraction remains a problem. In Aceh,
regulations under Sharia permit provincial authorities to use caning as
punishment for offenses related to gambling, alcohol consumption, and illicit
sexual activity. Indonesian terror force
accused of torture Australian
Associated Press AAP, 8 June 2016 www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/indonesian-terror-force-accused-of-torture/ar-AAgMpQa [accessed 8 August
2016] www.9news.com.au/world/2016/06/08/09/46/indonesian-terror-force-accused-of-torture [accessed 8 August
2016] The 33-year-old was
leading prayer at a mosque in Klaten, Central Java,
on March 8 when he was arrested and taken into a black car by two
plainclothes Densus 88 officers. More than four days later, Siyono's family was told he had died and was given money
in two thick envelopes by police, the report states. What happened during these intervening days
is a matter of conjecture. More than
four days later, Siyono's family was told he had
died and was given money in two thick envelopes by police, the report
states. What happened during these
intervening days is a matter of conjecture.
What happened during these intervening days is a matter of conjecture. On the day he was
arrested, Mr Amar told AAP two officers were taking
him to a suspected explosives and firearms site when Siyono
fought with the policeman who was sitting in the back of the car with
him. A struggle ensued and Siyono was fatally injured. It was a "procedural mistake", Mr Amar said. The officers had not handcuffed Siyono and failed to have enough people guarding him. An autopsy organised by Komnas HAM showed Siyono was tortured, the report states, having suffered a
broken nose, bruises to the face, blunt force trauma to the head,
semi-detached toes and broken ribs. "There are
torture practices in the process of arresting, detention and gathering
information in terrorism cases."
According to Komnas HAM around 120 people
have died since 2006 while in the hands of Densus
88. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] INDONESIA Widodo’s campaign
focused primarily on economic issues, but he made commitments on several of
the pressing human rights issues he inherited, including pledges to
investigate the enforced disappearance of 13 pro-democracy activists in 1998
in the dying days of the Suharto dictatorship and to lift restrictions on
foreign journalists from traveling to and reporting from Papua and West Papua
provinces. Those commitments are vague, however, and had yet to be backed by
specific directives or policy measures at time of writing. Newlywed Tortured
Following Fabricated Charge of Cannabis Possession Asian Human Rights
Commission, 15 July 2014 www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-103-2014 [accessed 15 July
2014] Dany was later
brought to Pamulang Sub-District Police Station,
where he was beaten prior to interrogation. He was beaten by a man with
tattoos named Ucok, who is a cepu
(an Indonesian slang for police ‘informant’). The beatings took place on the
first floor of the police station. Dany was allegedly beaten on his head. He
reeled with pain in his ears, as a result of the beatings. Dany was then taken
to the second floor of the police station, where he was interrogated. Dany
insisted that the cannabis cigarettes were not his. This statement resulted
in Dany being punched in the forehead by the Head of Pamulang
Sub-District Police Drug Unit, Bambang. Ucok was also present during the interrogation. This
intimidated Dany further. He could not bear the duress to which he was
subjected. Dany buckled under the violent tactics and signed the
interrogation transcript. Police Brutality,
Torture Still Rife: Activists Kennial Caroline Laia, The Jakarta Globe, Jakarta, 28 June 2014 www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/police-brutality-torture-still-rife-activists/ [accessed 1 July
2014] jakartaglobe.id/news/police-brutality-torture-still-rife-activists/ [accessed 3 January
2019] During his 32-year
reign, Suharto relied primarily on the military to silence his critics. But
since the start of the reform era 16 years ago, the military has been
stripped of its powers over civilian policing, while the police have only
grown in strength — and in their use of violence. The police were
responsible for 80 out of 108 recorded cases of torture of civilians between
June 2013 and June 2014, according to a report published on Thursday by the
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras),
a human rights watchdog. Prison officials
were responsible for 18 cases, and the military for
10, the report said. In all, Kontras said, there were 283 victims: 20 died, 155 were
severely injured, and one has gone missing. The total number of
cases is up from 100 in the 2012-2013 period, 84 from 2011-2012, and 28 from
2010-2011. “Violence has long
been a habit for law enforcement officers in this country,” says Haris Azhar, the Kontras coordinator. “For them, the use of violence and
torture is like a sanctioned shortcut.” He says much of the
violence takes the form of torture of the victim during interrogation, usually
to extract a confession, as in the case of Yeni’s
brother. Trial against
victim of torture is ongoing Asian Human Rights
Commission, Urgent Appeals Programme, 24 June 2014
-- Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-095-2014 www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-095-2014 [accessed 24 June
2014] CASE NARRATIVE - Lana Teresa Siahaan of Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta)
informed the AHRC that Zulfikar was taken away of
his dorm in Pasar Rumput
by six unidentified police officers at 1 a.m on 1
April 2014. He was arrested along with two other men, Zulkifli
and Bahar. Zulfikar was
blindfolded with black tape and taken to an unidentified location where he
was beaten up and trampled on. Following the
arrest, Zulfikar’s sister came to the dorm and
inquired from the head of the neighbourhood (Ketua RT) as to where the police had taken her brother.
The sister visited three police stations in Central Jakarta to find her brother,
yet none of these police stations had any information. Only after she
finished visiting the police stations did she receive a phone message from an
unidentified number containing the pictures of her brother, Zulfikli, and Bahar. The faces
of Zulfikar and Bahar
were bruised and swollen, whereas Zulfikli appeared
to be unharmed. The sister visited
Central Jakarta District Police for the second time on the same day to find Zulfikar. Yet the police officer in duty claimed that
there has been no ‘Zulfikar’ had been arrested or
detained in Central Jakarta District Police during the last two days. The
family was finally able to meet Zulfikar at Central
Jakarta District Police on the day when the arrest warrant was issued on 3
April 2014. West Papuans
'tortured, terrorised' Jenny Denton, Sydney
Morning Herald, 7 Oct 2013 www.smh.com.au/world/west-papuans-tortured-terrorised-20131006-2v2ae.html [accessed 6 Oct
2013] Human-rights
researchers affirmed the key finding of the study, which was conducted as
part of Dr Hernawan's
PhD, that ''torture has been deployed strategically by the Indonesian state
in Papua as a mode of governance''. The study says Indonesian forces carried
out torture as a public spectacle to achieve ''maximum terrifying impact'' on
the civilian population in the Papuan provinces, doing so with ''almost
complete impunity''. Torture included
beating, kicking, burning, stabbing, shooting, rape, starvation, forced
exercise and public humiliation and was carried out by military personnel and
to a lesser extent police officers. Incidents of
torture by law enforcement agencies on the rise Ina Parlina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, 29 June 2013 www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/06/29/incidents-torture-law-enforcement-agencies-rise.html [accessed 29 June
2013] A study by the
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras)
has found that the number of cases of torture committed by members of the
National Police, the Army and prison staff is on the rise. Kontras, which used the
same assessment framework used by the Committee Against Torture and the UN
Human Rights Council, uncovered 100 incidents in which 225 civilians were
allegedly tortured or intimidated by law enforcers during interrogation
between July 2012 and June 2013. The study found
that the police were involved in 14 incidents of the total 100 cases, the
military in 60 incidents and prison guards in 12 incidents. Kontras
coordinator Haris Azhar
said the figure was likely to represent the tip of the iceberg as there was a
lack of access to information and the victims often had neither the ability
nor courage to report the incidents. “There has been no
serious punishment meted out to law enforcers who commit acts of torture,” Haris told a press conference on Friday. Rights Commission
Warns of ‘Retaliatory Acts’ on Densus 88 Alleged
Torture Video Yeremia Sukoyo,
The Jakarta Globe, 3 March 2013 www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/rights-commission-warns-of-retaliatory-acts-on-densus-88-alleged-torture-video/575777 [accessed 3 March
2013] www.asia-pacific-solidarity.net/news/jg_rightscommissionwarnsofre_030313.htm [accessed 27 July
2017] The National
Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Sunday
warned of fresh violence in the Central Sulawesi town of Poso
and Maluku after the publication of a YouTube video depicting the torture of
terrorism suspects. It shows several
topless men, said to be terrorist suspects, bound and lying on the ground,
while dozens of other men in the uniforms of anti-terror police unit Densus 88 and the mobile brigade (Brimob)
unit yell at the suspects and carry guns. In the middle of
the video, one of the suspects, called Wiwin, was
told to walk to the middle of the field and remove his pants. He was then
shot in his chest. Police officers ignored his cries of pain and continued
interrogating him. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/IDN/CO/2
(2008) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/indonesia2008.html [accessed 1 March
2013] Widespread torture
and ill-treatment and insufficient safeguards during police detention 10. The Committee is deeply concerned about the
numerous, ongoing credible and consistent allegations, corroborated by the
Special Rapporteur on torture in his report (A/HRC/7/3/Add.7) and other
sources, of routine and widespread use of torture and ill-treatment of
suspects in police custody, especially to extract confessions or information
to be used in criminal proceedings.
Furthermore, there are insufficient legal safeguards for detainees,
including: (a) Failure to bring
detainees promptly before a judge, thus keeping them in prolonged police
custody for up to 61 days; (b) Absence of
systematic registration of all detainees, including juveniles, and failure to
keep records of all periods of pretrial detention; (c) Restricted access
to lawyers and independent doctors and failure to notify detainees of their
rights at the time of detention, including their rights to contact family
members (arts. 2, 10 and 11). As a matter of
urgency, the State party should take immediate steps to prevent acts of
torture and ill-treatment throughout the country and to announce a
zero-tolerance policy on any ill-treatment or torture by State officials. As part of this,
the State party should implement effective measures promptly to ensure that
all detained suspects are afforded, in practice, all fundamental legal
safeguards during their detention.
These include, in particular, the right to have access to a lawyer and
an independent medical examination, to notify a relative, and to be informed
of their rights at the time of detention, including about the charges laid
against them, as well as to appear before a judge within a time limit in
accordance with international standards.
The State party should also ensure that all suspects under criminal
investigation are registered, especially children. The State party
should also reinforce its training programmes for
all law enforcement personnel, including all members of the judiciary and
prosecutors, on the absolute prohibition of torture, as the State party is
obliged to carry out such training under the Convention. Furthermore, it should keep under
systematic review interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices
with a view to preventing cases of torture. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 POLICE AND SECURITY
FORCES Police were
repeatedly accused of human rights violations, including excessive use of
force and firearms, and torture and other ill-treatment. Internal and
external police accountability mechanisms failed to adequately deal with
cases of abuses committed by police, and investigations into human rights
violations were rare. In March, 17 men
from East Nusa Tenggara province were arbitrarily arrested for the murder of
a policeman. They were allegedly stripped, handcuffed and beaten in detention
for 12 days by the West Sabu sub-district police.
Some suffered stab wounds and broken bones. Some were reportedly forced by
police to drink their own urine. They were released without charge at the end
of June due to lack of evidence. Indonesian security
forces, including police and military personnel, were accused of human rights
violations in Papua. Torture and other ill-treatment, excessive use of force
and firearms and possible unlawful killings were reported. In most cases, the
perpetrators were not brought to justice and victims did not receive
reparations. In June, Mako Tabuni, a Papuan political
activist and deputy chair of the pro-independence National Committee for West
Papua, was shot dead by police officers in Waena,
near Jayapura, Papua province. Police alleged he was resisting arrest. There
was no impartial or independent investigation into the killing. Also in June,
soldiers attacked a village in Wamena, Papua
province, in retaliation for the death and injury of two of their personnel.
They reportedly opened fire arbitrarily, stabbed dozens of people with
bayonets – resulting in one death – and burned a number of houses, buildings
and vehicles. In August, police
and military personnel in Yapen island, Papua
province, forcibly dispersed a peaceful demonstration commemorating the
International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. Security forces fired their
guns into the air and arbitrarily arrested at least six protesters. Some were
reportedly beaten during their arrest. Also in August,
police personnel from the Jayawijaya District in
Papua province arbitrarily arrested and allegedly slapped, punched and kicked
five men in an attempt to force them to confess to a murder. No investigation
into the abuse was carried out. IMPUNITY In September, the
Acehnese provincial parliament announced a delay to setting up an Aceh truth
and reconciliation commission. This left victims and their families without
an official mechanism to establish the truth about the violations they
suffered during the conflict or to establish the fate or whereabouts of their
loved ones who were killed or had disappeared. The President
failed to act on Parliament’s recommendations in 2009 to bring to justice
those involved in the enforced disappearance of 13 pro-democracy activists in
1997 and 1998, to conduct an immediate search for activists who had
disappeared, and provide rehabilitation and compensation to their families. The government
failed to implement recommendations made by the bilateral
Indonesia-Timor-Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship, in particular to
establish a commission for disappeared persons tasked with identifying the
whereabouts of all Timor-Leste children who were separated from their parents
and notifying their families. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=indonesia+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 2 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/indonesia [accessed 31 January
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 12 May
2020] A survey conducted
by the Hong-Kong based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) in 2008
found that Indonesia had the worst judicial system in Asia. A survey
conducted by Transparency International in September and December 2008 found
that the total sum paid in bribes within the judiciary is greater than in any
other sector, including the police force. The Supreme Court remains the
slowest of the country’s judicial institutions to reform despite receiving
particular attention from the current administration. Low salaries for
judicial officials and impunity for illegal activity perpetuate the problems
of corruption, forced confessions, and influence by military personnel and
government officials in the court system. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61609.htm [accessed 31 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61609.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law makes it
a crime punishable by up to four years in prison for any official to use
violence or force to elicit a confession; however,
law enforcement officials widely ignored such statutes. Security forces
continued to employ torture and other forms of abuse. The government made
some efforts to hold members of the security forces responsible for acts of
torture. During the year the use of torture to obtain confessions from
suspects was most apparent in Aceh and Papua. Torture was
sometimes used to obtain confessions, punish suspects, and seek information
that incriminated others in criminal activity. Security forces also allegedly
used torture to extort money from villagers. Reliable figures on the number
of incidents of torture that occurred during the year were difficult to
obtain. Torture used included random beatings, bitings,
whippings, slashings, and burnings. In Aceh Province
the Human Rights NGO Coalition reported 80 cases of civilians and no cases of
GAM members tortured, compared with 77 civilians and 7 GAM members tortured
in 2004. In September 2004 Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported widespread abuse
of prisoners in Aceh by security forces, including electric shocks and
beatings with wooden beams and gun butts. The government announced it would
investigate the allegations; however, at year's end, there were no known
investigations. The Legal Aid
Foundation in Papua and Komnas HAM in Papua
reported that there were 35 cases of torture by security forces in Papua
during the year. On February 16, 10
Marines reportedly beat 6 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Aceh for
being unable or unwilling to supply them with information on the whereabouts of
GAM members. In another alleged incident, eight TNI members dragged a
53-year-old village head behind a pickup truck from his village to the
nearest TNI post, allegedly as punishment for not reporting that GAM members
passed in front of his house on occasion. On July 14,
soldiers allegedly tortured a presumed OPM member by slashing his face and
body with a knife and razor and then pouring petrol over his head and setting
his hair on fire. On July 22, 14 soldiers allegedly tortured two Papuan
civilians over the course of a day. The soldiers reportedly kicked, bit, and
punched them. The soldiers then tied up one of the victims and set fire to
dried weeds on his back after whipping him. The government
reported no progress in prosecuting those responsible for acts of torture
committed in Aceh in 2004 or 2003, including in those cases detailed in
reports by HRW and Amnesty International (AI). There was no new
progress in the case of suspected JI member Saifudin
Umar, alias Abu Fida, who was found seriously injured
in an East Java hospital in August 2004. He claimed to have been secretly
arrested and tortured by police, who admitted arresting Abu Fida for helping to hide two JI fugitives; however,
police denied torturing him. According to SIRA,
on February 7, soldiers raped a villager in Julok,
East Aceh. The local unit commander questioned the victim but there was no
information regarding any further investigation. SIRA also reported that on
May 6, soldiers raided a house in Kambam, North
Aceh in search of a suspected GAM member but when the soldiers found only his
wife they interrogated and raped her, reportedly as punishment for her
answers regarding her husband's activities and whereabouts. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, " Torture by Police, Forced
Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Indonesia", http://gvnet.com/torture/Indonesia.htm, [accessed
<date>] |
