Police unable to solve human rights violation cases

The Jakarta Police said they were not yet capable of solving the violent cases involving an alleged assault on Tama S. Langkun, a researcher for the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), and a Molotov cocktail which was thrown into Tempo magazine’s office.

Tama was physically assaulted on July 8, two days after unknown assailants lobbed Molotov cocktails at the Tempo office in Central Jakarta.

Prior to the alleged attack, Tempo ran an article on an alleged corruption case within the police institution as a headline. The magazine reported that at least seven high-ranking police officers were suspected of hoarding billions of rupiah in their bank accounts, transferred from third parties. Tama was the investigator behind the article.

The seven suspected officers included Insp. Gen. Budi Gunawan, the head of the police internal affairs division and a former adjutant to the president during Megawati Soekarnoputri’s administration, East Kalimantan Police chief Insp. Gen. Mathius Salempang, former police Mobile Brigade chief Insp. Gen. Sylvanus Yulian Wenas and police School for Leadership (Sespim) lecturer Insp. Gen. Bambang Suparno.

Semarang Police chief and former West Jakarta Police chief, Sr. Comr. Edward Syah Pernong, and the former section head of the vehicle registration (STNK) department of the Makasar Police, Sr. Comr. (ret.) Umar Leha, as well as the troubled former National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji were also on the list.

“We admit that we cannot yet resolve these two cases because of the lack of evidence and witnesses. However, we will arrest the culprits once we find sufficient proof and eye-witness,” said Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman during his visit to the Tempo office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday.

“We work based on evidence, not predictions,” he added as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Sutarman said that the police had distributed the sketches of Tama’s assailants to the public.

“Tama personally provided corrections if our sketches were not similar to the assailants, but it is difficult to track them down,” Sutarman said.

Sutarman also denounced the notion that the police had tried to conceal the truth behind the Molotov cocktail attack on the Tempo office to make it look like as if it was a result of an internal conflict at Tempo.

“If we have to, we will interrogate our own members who were there during the attack,” he said.

“We have no vested interest. We would never distort the case to be part of a conflict within Tempo,” he added.

Jakarta Police Crime Unit head Comr. Sr. Herry Rudolf Nahak said that as long as the evidence and witnesses were insufficient, the police could do nothing.

A coalition of civil societies such as the ICW and the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation, met with Sutarman on Tuesday and demanded that the police resolve the Tama and Tempo cases as soon as possible.


(2011-1-13/thejakartapost)