Police deny involvement in YLBHI secretariat attack

Police deny involvement in YLBHI secretariat attack

JAKARTA (JP): Menteng Police dismissed on Saturday the
allegations that its officers attacked and damaged the Foundation
of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) secretariat on Jl.
Diponegoro No. 74 in Central Jakarta in pursuit of violent
student protesters on Thursday.

"It was the student protesters and the crowd that pelted
stones at the YLBHI secretariat.

"Yet the public pointed their fingers only at the police,"
deputy chief of the Menteng Police Capt. Sudiman said in a media
conference.

He said nobody had been held responsible for the incident,
which took place after the protesters returned from staging their
protest on Jl. Cendana, where former president Soeharto resides.

"Even people at YLBHI did not entirely recognize those who
took shelter at the building," he said.

Sudiman denied that plainclothes officers stormed the building
in search of the protesters, but vowed that they would conduct an
investigation to find the identity of the attackers.

"YLBHI management said that they would also conduct an
investigation into the incident," he said.

Sudiman said the incident started when the police fired tear
gas canisters at the protesters, sending them in different
directions, including to the Menteng Police station.

"They pelted stones at our office, but we drove them away to
the Cikini area," he said.

He added that at 6:30 p.m, the office received calls from
residents complaining that the protesters and the crowd were
still at the nearby Megaria Police post.

"We handled the situation, even after they threw Molotov
cocktails at the Megaria Police post," he said, adding that the
persuasive approach of the police still failed to calm the
emotional protesters, who later used broken bottles and stones to
attack police officers.

When things calmed down a bit, Sudiman said, the police
retreated to the Megaria Police post hoping that the protesters
would dissipate.

"However, they turned back and chased the officers until a
water canon, which was sent there, scared them away before we
even used it," he said.

He said a police car parked on Jl. Salemba Raya in Central
Jakarta became the target of the protesters.

"They broke the windows of the car and banged on its roof."

Meanwhile, the Association of Indonesian Lawyers (IPHI)
strongly condemned the incident, calling the actions of the
police improper and arrogant.

"The incident ignored YLBHI's existence and the legal
community in general," the association said in a written
statement, copies of which were made available to the media on
Saturday.

"The attack disregards our (legal community) existence,
because the YLBHI secretariat has repeatedly been the target of
police attacks, but with no satisfactory legal prosecution to
resolve the cases," IPHI chairman Indra Sahnun Lubis said in the
statement.

"If Thursday's incident remains unresolved, it will be a bad
precedence for the image of the police. (06)