Newspaper lodges protest against police brutality

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Some 30 staff and security guards of the daily Waspada have lodged a complaint alleging police brutality with the North Sumatra Provincial Police Headquarters.

The complaint concerned an assault that was allegedly perpetrated by police officers at the newspaper's offices on Jl. Brigadir Jenderal Katamso in the city on Wednesday.

The newspaper's editorial staffers and security guards who were received by the Medan City Police chief, Adj. Sr. Comr. Ishak Robinson, called on the police to take strict measures against five police officers who assaulted a member of the daily's editorial staff for unclear reasons.

Setia Budi Siregar, the victim of the assault, said five armed men wearing police jackets and helmets entered the office and beat him repeatedly as he was climbing from the third to the fourth floor of the building.

He said he appealed to the policemen to stop hitting him as he was a journalist, but the officers ignored his pleas.

"They only stopped after I managed to take out my press card and show it to them," he said.

Aswir Thaher, the managing editor of the daily, said he witnessed the incident and tried to intervene, but was also attacked by the officers.

Syaiful, a security guard who was on duty at the time of the incident, said the policemen ignored him when he asked them not to go up the stairs.

The incident occurred when the police were searching for youths who were involved in a brawl near the daily's offices. The police suspected that some of the youths involved in the brawl had taken refuge in the daily's offices.

Robinson apologized to the newspaper and the staff members who were assaulted during the incident, and pledged to take strict action against the officers responsible.

I don't wish to merely defend them for the sake of defending them. We will punish those responsible for this brutal attack," he pledged.

Muchyan A.A., the chairman of the local chapter of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI), regretted the incident and called on the police to investigate the case thoroughly.

"We will check on whether the police are taking this example of police brutality further. We will sue the police if no action is taken," he asserted.

He said the police should be professional and abide by the law in performing their duties as they were not gangsters but rather law enforcers.