Families urge rights body to probe recruits' deaths

The Jakarta Post, Palu, Central Sulawesi

Skeptical of the police's internal inquiry, families of the four new recruits of the police's elite force, who died on Sept. 1 after a long-distance run, strongly urged the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to investigate the incident in Palu, Central Sulawesi, saying there were strong indications that the victims had been abused.

"We call on the rights body to send a fact-finding team to probe the incident, because according to accounts from the victims' colleagues and witnesses, they were abused and beaten to death," M.R. Madonsa, 43, the uncle of Second Pvt. Yohanis Tula, one of the four victims, said after a meeting on Saturday with Central Sulawesi Police Chief Brig. Gen. Taufik Ridha in Palu.

Madonsa, who traveled from Sangihe Island, North Sulawesi, met with Taufik for further explanations because he was not convinced that his nephew had died from ordinary exercise.

Tulas, along with his three colleagues Second Pvt. Sahilu, Second Pvt. Deny Karya Yanis and Second Pvt. Sutadji Sumako Tulas, died after a 13-kilometer run held on Tuesday as part of their initiation into the Brimob elite police unit.

Madonsa said that according to Tulas' colleagues, the four were beaten and kicked by their instructors during and after the exercise.

"The evidence is that the bodies of the four -- as well as of those undergoing intensive treatment at Palu General Hospital -- were black-and-blue from some sort of beating," he said, saying it was not rational that new recruits who had undergone heavy training in East Java could not complete a 13-km run.

Syahria, Sutadji's aunt, said blood continued flow out of her nephew's nose when his body was laid out at his house before the funeral on Sept. 2.

Several street vendors, who saw the exercise, reported on the abuse, saying the four were not only beaten, but also kicked violently.

Madonsa and Syahria said they were skeptical of the police's ability to investigate human rights abuses, saying the police were only trained in investigating crimes and felonies.

At the onset of investigations into the incident, National Police Chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar dismissed the Brimob commander in charge of the four victims' unit and arrested the four instructors for further interrogation.