Publications

On 23 July 2022, two police officers, Bripka SR and Bripka WL shot a man named Raymond Londok (RL) dead in Pandu Village, Bunaken District, Manado City. The police answered the call of a community resident concerned by a drunk man holding a dagger/ white object and screaming. The resident expected the police to calm down the drunken man, but allegedly the officers used excessive force and killed the victim. The police stated it was self-defence and tried to dissuade the family from reporting the victim’s death. On 18 August 2022, the North Sulawesi Regional Police held a press conference led by the Head of Public Relations of the North Sulawesi Police, Kombes Pol. Jules Abraham Abast.

A 42-year-old woman named Sumiarti Masry was arrested by the Sikka Polres on 1 September 2022 in Wuring, Wolomarang Village, Alok District, Sikka Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province. She was arrested for saying through her Facebook account that “traffic police (Polantas) is like ‘Ferdy Sambo”. The Sambo case is a high-profile story that has caught the public’s attention across Indonesia since July 2022. Sumiarti’s case began with her comments on Ryna Nhozee’s Facebook account status: “Ngerii ew polisi tilang sampai masuk di Wuring” (It was terrible, the traffic police inspect in Wuring). At that time, the Traffic Police Unit of the Sikka Police was conducting a vehicle inspection in the Wuring T-junction area.

On 20 September 2022, four members of the North Halmahera Polres in North Maluku Province in Indonesia tortured an activist and student at the University of Halmahera, Yulius Atu (also called Ongen) for criticising how the police handled the demonstration against the rise in fuel prices that took place earlier a day before. Police dragged, kicked, beat, and forced the victim to apologise to police sniffer dogs. During the protest, Yulius took photos of police officers using sniffer dogs to keep the protest under control. After the rally, the victim uploaded a photo with a WhatsApp status that said, ‘unable to use hands, use sniffer dogs’ (tidak mampu pake tangan, pake anjing pelacak).

It has been more than two years since the extrajudicial killing of a 22-year-old man named Exel Djunaidi (ED) by the police in North Sulawesi. The legal process against the perpetrator has not been carried out. ED died after being arrested by members of the Directorate of Drug Detection (Ditresnarkoba) of the North Sulawesi Regional Police on 13 September 2020 at his house in Lolah Satu Village, East Tombariri District, Minahasa. The family found ED dead with several gunshot wounds on his body, including one in the back of the head. The case was reported to the police on 14 September 2020. However, the police stopped the preliminary investigation of this case four months after the incident in January 2021.

On 1 October 2022, the chaos that ended in tragedy took over the stadium after a football competition between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, East Java. As a result of the incident, as of 5 October 2022, 131 people were reported dead and hundreds injured. Thirty-four people died inside the stadium; the remaining victims died in the hospital. This has been, so far, the darkest football tragedy in the history of Indonesian football. The police response to the crowd unrest has raised questions about this tragedy’s human rights violations.

On 23 August 2022 the Head of Ternate District Prosecutor’s Office (Kajari), Abdullah Fatah, demanded that Maharani Carolina, a female lawyer in Ternate, apologise publicly for her posts on her Facebook account, Namaku Ranigila (my name is crazy Rany). The posts criticised the handling of the drug case involving Stephanus Peter Imanuel (Steven) by the Ternate District Prosecutor’s office and the North Maluku High Prosecutor.

On 7 September 2022, a group calling itself the Committee for the Rescue of Local Wisdom in Cilegon City held a demonstration against the construction of the Maranatha Batak Protestant Huria Christian Church (HKBP) in the Cikuasa neighbourhood, Geram Village, Grogol District, Cilegon City, Banten Province. They used the Decree of the Head of Serang II No. 189/Huk/SK/1975, dated 20 March 1975, as a juridical document to reject the establishment of a church. This decree reportedly regulates the establishment of houses of worship other than mosques in Serang Regency, now Cilegon City.

A journalist, an editor of online media outlet cermat.co.id, and an official partner of kumparan.com, Mr Nurcholis Lamau, was intimidated and beaten by the family of the Deputy Mayor of Tidore Island, Mr Muhammad Sinen because of an editorial article he wrote criticising some of the Deputy Mayor public remarks. This incident occurred at Nurcholis’ house in Rum Balibunga Village, Tidore City, on 31 August 2022, not long after Nurcholis Lamau published the editorial titled “Breathing Coal Dust Get Rewards” on the online media cermat.co.id. The Dep

On August 22, 2022, hundreds of members of the Police from the Simalungun Police and members of the TNI from Kodim 0207 Simalungun carried out repressive actions against the Sihaporas indigenous community in Pematang Sidamanik district, Simalungun Regency, North Sumatra Province. The indigenous people of Sihaporas Lamtoras were protesting the business activities of PT Toba Pulp Lestari (PT TPL) in their ancestral territory and aimed to stop them until the land dispute is settled. The brutality of the joint security forces in Simalungun resulted in a woman being injured by a rubber bullet.

On 1 August 2022, the police repressively dispersed a peaceful demonstration by mostly members of the Tourism Care Community Forum (Formapp) in Labuan Bajo against the government’s tourism management policies for Komodo National Park (KNP). For Formapp, the policies are unilateral and detrimental to residents, and the main issue is the increased entrance fees for the KNP. Labuan Bajo is a gateway town to the KNP, it is located in Komodo, West Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province.