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Two More Officers Named Suspects In Deadly Crackdown on Bima Protest
Farouk Arnaz | January 03, 2012

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didikarjadi
6:02pm Jan 3, 2012

These are just the monkeys, it is the organ grinder who needs investigating and prosecuting, National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo.

What was it Timur said a few days ago at an end of year press conference: "the police have committed no human rights infringements or abuses during 2011".

didikarjadi
5:56pm Jan 3, 2012

It is time that Timur was suspended and investigated. The man is a gangster and he has turned an already bad police force into a band of mercenary thugs for hire to anybody who can pay.

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Two more officers were named as suspects on Monday for beating protesters in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, last month, but no one has yet been charged in the shooting deaths of two of the protesters.

The police announced on Saturday that three officers had been named suspects for assaulting protesters, but also not for shooting at them.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said on Monday that the earlier three officers had been arrested.

“We have arrested three of our members who were involved in the violence,” the spokesman said. “There is a disciplinary offense for hitting and kicking [demonstrators]. It is possible that the officers will also face criminal charges.”

Saud did not identify the three officers, but Brig. Gen. Budi Waseso, the head of internal monitoring at the National Police, previously said they were low-ranking personnel from the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit.

Saud said the two officers named suspects on Monday had also been charged. They have been identified as First Brig. A and First Brig. MS, both from the Bima district police.

“We will have an [internal] tribunal for all five soon,” he said.

Saud did not explain why the two Bima Police officers had not been detained.

Police found eight bullets from the bodies of protesters, including the two who were killed, Arief Rachman, 18, and Syaiful, 17.

National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said last week that the two did not die from police fire. He said the bodies had been found at least 700 meters from the scene of the violence.

“This is what we are trying to find out, how they were killed while [protesters] at the seaport didn’t die,” he said.

On Dec. 24, in an effort to disperse protesters who had occupied the Sape ferry port for days, the police reportedly opened fire on the crowd.

The police have argued that the protesters, who had occupied the port in opposition to an exploration permit granted to a gold mining company in Bima, had disrupted vital transportation links between Sumbawa and the island of Flores, inflicting damage to the local economy.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has sent a team to investigate the violence, but has not announced its findings.