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INDONESIA: Illegal detention and shooting incident of two men by the Bangsalsari Sector Police in East Java

August 6, 2006

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

7 August 2006
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UA-262-2006: INDONESIA: Illegal detention and shooting incident of two men by the Bangsalsari Sector Police in East Java

INDONESIA: Arbitrary Detention and Intention Shooting
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received the following information from the Commission of Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras) in Indonesia regarding illegal detention and shooting incident of two men by the Bangsalsari Sector Police in East Java in August 2002. The police illegally detained the victims for about two months without giving any reason. The victims were later released without any charges by the police. For the last four years since then, the victims have never been informed the reason for their arrest and detention. Despite their complaints to several relevant authorities, no action has yet been taken to investigate this case.

At midnight on August 2002, the officers from the Sector Police Bangsalsari, Jember, East Java came to Mattasan's house of Jl. Tengah Kebun Jurusan Selodakon Dusun Dukuh II Dusun Banjarsari Kec. Bangsalsari Kab. Jember, East Java, Indonesia. The police also went to the house of his brother Samo who lived nearby. The officers told the brothers that the Chief of Sector Police, Letda. Pol. Djumadi, SH, wanted Mattason and Samo for some reason which was not clearly informed to the victims in detail. Due to fear, Mattasan and Samo did not object to the police's order. The police then took the two men into their custody and brought them to Jember Sector Police Headquarter.

Mattasan and Samo were illegally detained for 6 days without being given any reason for their arrest. The police then put them into a car after handcuffing them and covering their eyes. They drove to a plantation in Klatakan Kecamatan Tanggul and dropped them there. They then shot directly at the legs of the brothers. After that, the police took the wounded victims to the Bangsalsari Hospital where the victims received inadequate medical treatment for a short time. The police then took them to the Resort Police Headquarters, Bangsalsari.

Since then, the two men were again illegally detained for about two months without being given any reasons. After two months of detention, they were released without any charges by the police and returned to their family. For the last four years, the two men have never been informed why they had been arrested and detained from the police. The victims sent written complaints to the Police Chief of East Java Headquarter, the Chief of the Jember Resort Police and the National Commission of Human Rights on 19 May and 19 July 2006, but received no response from them. No investigation has been conducted in this case. The victims are now in a hopeless situation with regard to justice.

It is common in Indonesia that the police arbitrarily arrest people without any charges or evidence to "solve" their cases. In many of those cases, the victims are forced to confess the crimes to which they know nothing about. The poorest sectors of the society become the victims of such illegal acts by the police and they have nowhere to go to gain justice. The two victims in this case also are reportedly from a poor family living in a small hamlet.   

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant authorities listed below and urge them to order a thorough and prompt investigation into this case and bring the alleged perpetrators to justice. Please also urge them to ensure adequate compensation to the victims.

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Sample letter:

INDONESIA: Illegal detention and shooting incident of two men by the Bangsalsari Sector Police in East Java

Name of the victims: Samo and Mattasan (siblings), farmers by occupation
Address of the victims: Jl. Tengah Kebun Jurusan Selodakon Dusun Dukuh II Dusun Banjarsari Kec. Bangsalsari Kab. Jember, East Java, Indonesia
Alleged perpetrators: Officers of Bangsalsari Sector Police, Jember, East Java (one of Butar Butar, two unknown)
Period of illegal detention: Arbitrarily arrested in August 2002 and illegally detained about two months without any charges; shot by the police in their legs 6 days after their arrest

I am deeply concerned by an alleged illegal detention and shooting of two men mentioned above by the Bangsalsari Sector Police in East Java.
 
According to the information I have received, the two victims were arrested by the officers from the Sector Police Bangsalsari, Jember, East Java separately from their houses at midnight in August 2002. The victims were told that the Chief of Sector Police, Letda. Pol. Djumadi, SH, wanted them. The police brought them to Jember Sector Police Headquarter, where they were illegally detained for 6 days without being given any reason since their arrest.

I was also informed that after 6 days of their arrest, the police took the victims to a plantation in Klatakan Kecamatan Tanggul where they shot at the legs of the two victims. After that, the police took the gun-shot victims to the Bangsalsari Hospital where the victims received inadequate medical treatment for a short time. The police then took them to the Resort Police Headquarters, Bangsalsari, where the victims were again illegally detained for about two months.  They were never given any reasons for their arrest. After that, they were released without any charges by the police. For the last four years, the two men have never been informed the reason for their arrest and detention. Even though the victims complained to the Police Chief of East Java Headquarter, the Chief of the Jember Resort Police and the National Commission of Human Rights on 19 May and 19 July 2006, there has been no response from those authorities and as a result, no investigation has been launched in the case.

I am clearly aware that it is common feature in Indonesia that the police arbitrarily arrest people without any charges or evidence to "solve" their cases. In many of those cases, the victims, who are mostly from the poorest sector of society, are forced to confess the crimes of which they know nothing about. The two victims in this case also are reportedly from a poor family living in a small hamlet.   

In light of the above, I strongly urge you to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into this case. The officers responsible for illegal detention and shooting must be brought to justice as soon as possible. I also urge you to take steps to provide adequate compensation and rehabilitation to the victims.

Yours truly,


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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Gen. Sutanto
Chief of National Police
Jl. Trunojoyo No. 3
Jakarta Selatan
INDONESIA
Tel.: +62-21-721 8012
Fax: +62-21-720 7277

2. Chief of East Java Police Headquarter
Jl. Ahmad Yani No. 116 Surabaya
Jawa Timur
Tel: +62-31-5022273
Fax: +62-31-8280333

3. Chief of Jember Resort Police Headquarter
Tel: +62-331-483270
Fax: +62-331-424699

4. Mr. Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara
Chairperson
KOMNAS HAM [National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia]
Jl. Latuharhary No. 4B Menteng
Jakarta Pusat 10310
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 3925230
Fax: +62 21 3151042/3925227
E-mail: info@komnasham.or.id

5. Mr. Abdul Rahman Saleh
Attorney General
Kejaksaan Agung RI
Jl. Sultan Hasanuddin No. 1
Jakarta Selatan
INDONESIA
Tel: + 62 21 7221337, 7397602
Fax: + 62 21 7250213
Email: postmaster@kejaksaan.or.id

6. Ms Leila Zerrougui
Chairperson
Working Group on arbitrary detention
Attn: Mr Miguel de la Lama
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTENTION: WORKING GROUP ARBITRARY DETENTION)

7. Prof. Manfred Nowak
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
Attn: Safir Syed
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9230
Fax: +41 22 917 9016 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR TORTURE)


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

 

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-262-2006
Countries :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.