Siti Ruqoyah, Jakarta – Thirty or more people from the Indonesian Association of the Families of Missing Persons (Ikohi) and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) who were arrested and taken to the Central Jakarta municipal police station yesterday evening are still being questioned.

“The 30 people are currently making out police investigation reports in relation to the action that took place earlier. It is considered to be a misdemeanor. In all likelihood they won’t be question or detained for long”, said Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar when speaking with Okezone at the Central Jakarta district police station on Monday evening.

The 30 people were participants in a protest action intending to camp out in front of the State Palace in Central Jakarta with the aim of demanding the fulfillment of a pledge given to victims of violence by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that has still not been met.

“They were evacuated by police officers because they wanted to setup a camp, and because the time [limit] for the action ended at 6pm local time. I’m surprised as to why for something like this they were all taken to the district police. But what else could we do, we just followed procedures”, Azhar added.

Azhar explained that before the protesters were evacuated by police, they were approached by a task force staff member to ask what complaint they wanted to convey to the president.

Despite the arrests, Azhar denied that they would stop fighting for the rights of victims of violence to would continue holding protests. “We will continue holding actions even though an incident like this could be repeated,” he said. (teb)

[Translated by James Balowski.]