Nicholas Ryan Aditya, Jakarta – National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Chairperson Ahmad Taufan Damanik has revealed that the Indonesian police (Polri) are the institution which has been the subject of most complaints related to alleged human rights violations between January and September 2021.
Damanik said that there were as many as 571 complaints against the police received by Komnas HAM over this period.
"Based on a classification of the reported parties, or the highest, it was still Polri, or which is related to violence and so forth. But there was also a link with case handling, which was reported to Komnas HAM", said Damanik during a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission III and Komnas HAM on Monday October 4.
Damanik said that they then broke down the 571 complains in to the three most common types, which included a lack of professionalism or failure to follow procedures (299 complaints), violence and torture by police [number not cited] and problems in dealing with ethical code violations by police (78 complaints).
"Then the dismissal of Polri members, protection for vulnerable groups, and involvement in agrarian disputes with 14 complaints", he said.
Damanik did not provide a break down on the regions were there were complaints of alleged violations or violence by the police saying more detailed information can be found in a dossier containing scores of pages which was handed over to Commission III.
Following the police, the next largest number of complaints received were against corporations. Based on Komnas HAM's records, there were 404 complaints against corporations between January and September 2021.
"[In the case of] complaints against corporations, must were over the problem of land disputes, forced evictions, allegations about land mafia and exploitation of natural resources. These have continued to come into Komnas HAM, related to mining and so forth, there were 141", explained Damanik.
Following corporations, the next largest number of complaints was related to the failure to provide normative labour rights, union busing and labour disputes with 78 complaints.
Then case related to environmental damage and pollution with the reported parties being corporations with as many as 13 complaints.
Finally, complaints against regional governments. There were three types of cases which were most commonly reported, namely land disputes, land theft and compensation for land with 58 complaints, civil service and labour related cases with as many as 13 complaints and intolerance and threats against freedom of religion and belief with 11 complaints.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Komnas HAM Sebut Polri Jadi Institusi dengan Aduan Dugaan Pelanggaran HAM Tertinggi Sepanjang 2021".]
