Police beef up security before soccer final

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city police will double the number of security personnel at the stadium to safeguard the final rounds of the Indonesian Soccer League on Sunday to ensure that Thursday's bloody clashes among soccer fans do not recur.

"We will be deploying some 3,600 police personnel to safeguard Gelora Bung Karno stadium and its vicinity both before and after the match," Jakarta Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Makbul Padmanegara said on Saturday.

PSM, a club from Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi will play Persija, a team from Jakarta in the finals of the Indonesian League competition on Sunday at Gelora Bung Karno.

Makbul said the city police would do its utmost to safeguard the public both inside and outside the stadium, saying that President Megawati Soekarnoputri would also come to the stadium to watch the match.

Makbul said all subprecinct police personnel will be backed by personnel from the Jakarta Military Command, and all would be prepared to secure the capital.

"We don't want to let it get chaotic again. We will take tough measures against any violence and vandalism," he told reporters following a closed-door security meeting in preparation for the emotionally-charged soccer match. The meeting was attended by all of the subprecinct police chiefs.

Thursday's soccer matches ended with violent clashes among supporters which spilled onto the main roads wherein several passersby were beaten or robbed. The police had deployed some 1,800 officers, who were mostly concentrated inside the stadium and its immediate vicinity.

The clashes injured some 40 people, some of whom were still being treated at a number of hospitals in the city.

Although the police personnel would be doubled, Makbul warned the city's citizens to remain vigilant.

"I suggest to the city's citizens to avoid passing through roads around the venue during or after the match (3 p.m to 7 p.m. Sunday) due to expected traffic jams and potential violence," he said.

He said the main entry and exit routes around the stadium would not be closed, but would be tightly guarded.

The deployment of security personnel will cover, among other streets, Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Asia Afrika, Jl. Gerbang Pemuda. "There will be a group of five police officers every 20 meters," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said.

Anton said the police have already begun searching supporters for weapons and reminding them to refrain from violence.

"We've spoken to some 3,500 soccer supporters from Ujungpandang, landing at Tanjung Priok port (in North Jakarta), and did not find any weapons," Anton said.

Supporters of the two competing teams are actually not as historically violent as Surabaya's soccer team Persebaya's supporters, who are known here as bonek (penniless hooligans) due to their notorious hooliganism. Most of the violence on Thursday was blamed on Persebaya fans.

Anton, however, warned that there have been indications of destructive behavior among the supporters, referring to the Ujungpandang fans outburst earlier this week on a stopover in a Surabaya port in which 2,000 of them ran amok for no apparent reason vandalizing the port area and hospitalizing several innocent bystanders.

"We have prepared to cope with supporters of both soccer teams because there have been signs that those supporters will conduct actions which could harm other people," he was quoted as saying by Detik.com.