Police beef up security to safeguard soccer, Mega

Police beef up security to safeguard soccer, Mega

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.