Ardito Ramadhan, Jakarta – Police say they have arrested 3,862 people during protest actions against the recently enacted Omnibus Law on Job Creation which took place around the country on Thursday October 8.
National police public relations division head Inspector General Argo Yuwono said that those arrested are still being held at police stations and are undergoing questioning.
“The demonstrators, who held actions yesterday, are still being questioned, they’re still in the process of being questioned”, said Yuwono during a press conference broadcast on the Kompas TV YouTube channel on Friday October 9.
Yuwono confirmed that the 3,862 people who were arrested came from various different groups including anarchists, the general public, high-school and university students, workers and the unemployed.
“Several of the people detained have been identified, the first are those from anarchist groups totalling 796, this is in South Sumatra, Bengkulu, Lampung, East Java, by the PMJ (the Metro Jaya regional police), North Sumatra and West Kalimantan”, he said.
“Then there are 601 members of the general public arrested in South Sulawesi, South-East Sulawesi and Jakarta, 1,548 high-school students were arrested in South Sulawesi, Jakarta, North Sumatra Utara and Central Kalimantan.”
“Next there were as many as 443 people from South Sulawesi, Jakarta, South-East Sulawesi, North Sumatera, West Papua and Central Kalimantan, 419 workers in Jakarta and North Sumatera, along with 55 unemployed people in South-East Sulawesi, South Kalimantan and North Sumatra.”
Yuwono said that police will summon the students’ parents so that they know what their children have been doing. “So they know what is being done by their sons so later of course there will not just be supervision at school but also at home”, said Yuwono.
As has been reported, protest actions against the Omnibus Law have taken place in several parts of Indonesia.
Demonstrators, who come from labour, university and high-school student groups and other social organisations, are demanding that the Omnibus Law – which was only enacted on Monday October 5 – be cancelled.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Demonstrasi Tolak UU Cipta Kerja, 3.862 Orang Ditangkap Polisi”.]
