Amnesty Asks The Police To Be Persuasive In Facing Protesters

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JAKARTA - Human rights independent organization (HAM) Amnesty International Indonesia asked the National Police to optimize a democratic, persuasive and dialogue approach with protesters, as well as release a number of activists and a number of arrested protesters.

Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid said this was a suggestion from the Human Rights Office at the United Nations. According to him, the threat of punishment against activists and protesters only sparked an escalation of tensions between the police and critics.

"They have the right to gather and express opinions in public. That is human rights," said Usman as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, September 2.

The state, he said, should have appeared humanely, namely listening to the demands of citizens, respecting freedom of expression, and upholding the law fairly. Without that, according to him, the President's statement regarding freedom of expression and aspirations will not be realized.

He also regretted the increasing number of deaths related to last week's demonstration. For this reason, he asked the state to cooperate with Komnas HAM to ensure that there were parties responsible for the deaths of a number of these people.

"Labeling of anarchism, terrorism, and treason, has the potential to escalate a security approach and justify the use of more repressive and excessive force," he said.

Previously, the non-profit human rights activist Lokataru Foundation said that Lokataru Director Delpedro Marhaen was arrested by the authorities on Monday (1/9) night. Lokataru in a press release stated that this arrest was a repressive act that injured the principles of democracy and human rights.

Apart from Delpedro, a number of other activists were also concurrent, namely Syahdan Husein and Khariq Anhar. They were also arrested and detained at the Polda Metro Jaya detention center.

In addition, the National Police stated that they had arrested 3,195 people from the masses involved in violent demonstrations from various regions in Indonesia. The arrests of thousands of people from the masses were accompanied by evidence of Molotov cocktails found in several locations of demonstrations and an increase in the number of casualties from civil society.