A survey carried out by nongovernmental organizations between July and September last year showed there was a widespread belief among respondents in Papua that police engaged in practices of torture.
For the survey, the Jakarta and Papua offices of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) spoke to 205 respondents from various fields: police, prosecutors, customary and tribal leaders, commentators, criminal suspects and even inmates at Abepura Prison in Jayapura, Papua.
The results showed that respondents identified several institutes as engaging in torture: the police (61 percent), prosecutors (31 percent) and prison officials (8 percent).
The findings echo the results of a previous survey by LBH Jakarta, in which respondents identified police as the main perpetrators of torture among all branches of law enforcement.
“The Papua survey confirms our earlier findings, with more than 60 percent of respondents identifying police as being engaged in torture,” LBH researcher Laode M. Syarif said at the announcement of the survey results in Jakarta on Friday.
He said respondents to the survey also identified the three main methods of torture employed by law enforcement officials against suspects and inmates at Abepura: physical, psychological and sexual violence.
“Physical violence includes such acts as grabbing, dragging hitting and crippling,” Syarif said. “Psychological torture includes threatening people at gunpoint, while sexual violence includes disrobing suspects, photographing them in forced intimate poses, groping and forcing them to perform oral sex on each other.”
He said police resorted to these extreme measures because they were incapable of getting the information they sought from the suspects in cases.
“It’s the easiest way to get a confession,” Syarif said. “These practices are carried out in defiance of a directive issued by the National Police chief in 2009 on implementing human rights standards and principles during the course of an investigation,” he said.
Syarif sad the survey also indicated key differences in the way better educated suspects were treated by police. Suspects who had received a secondary education or higher were more likely to be tortured.
“There are also indications that suspects with an income of Rp 3 million [US$ 326] are less likely to be tortured than lower income suspects,” Syarif said.
At the end of 2010, an investigation undertaken by LBH Jakarta in Jakarta, Surabaya, Makassar and the Acehnese towns of Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe uncovered proof that police were engaged in acts of torture.
According to that study, Surabaya was perceived as having the highest rates of torture committed by police, with 93.8 percent of 96 suspects and inmates claiming torture was most widely carried out by police.
Police responded coolly to the survey. National Police spokesman Saut Usman Nasution said police respected the LBH’s opinion and would take steps to look into the matter.
However, he questioned the methods used by the LBH in carrying out its survey.
Additional reporting by Keyko Ranti Ramadhani & Carla Isati Octama
Comments
blightyboy
9:33pm Jan 13, 2012
Does anybody else reading this have an overwhelming desire to vomit?
mbalbed
10:45pm Jan 13, 2012
desire to vomit? yes indeed.
DrDez
7:03am Jan 14, 2012
Oh yes ....
didikarjadi
7:18am Jan 14, 2012
This is terrible, but just confirms what most of us suspect of our police. They are now completely out of control.
Surely now the President must act to completely reform our police force, and start by sacking the chief of police.
There has been a great deal of bad reports about the police lately, but little if any response from the President or legislators. Is everybody frightened of Timur? This man is very bad, he must be got rid of. We can specifically thank SBY for inflicting this thug upon us, and basically handing to him free rein to bring havoc upon the nation. The police are now just a mercenary force of bullies, for rent to anybody.