Police deny raiding NGO's headquarters

Police deny raiding NGO's headquarters

JAKARTA (JP): Police insisted yesterday that none of their
personnel were involved in Saturday's raid on the headquarters of
a women's organization in Cipinang Cempedak, East Jakarta.

"We have nothing to do with the raid and have no idea about
it," East Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Gories Mere told The
Jakarta Post here yesterday.

Around 20 people claiming to be police officers raided the
headquarters of Solidaritas Perempuan (Women's Solidarity for
Human Rights), at 4:30 a.m. Saturday morning.

In a complaint filed with the City Police, the organization,
which focuses on migrant workers' rights, said that the
plainclothes officers were "searching for people involved in the
July 27 incident."

The men seized documents from the office and took three of the
organization's employees who were sleeping in the office "to an
unknown location", said Tati Krisnawaty, the executive
chairperson of the organization.

Reliable sources said that the men were intelligence officers,
not from the police force, who were assigned to "round up" any
person or members of alleged left-wing NGOs believed to have
played a part in the July 27 riot. Many people were reported
missing, and dozens of buildings and cars were burned in the
bloody riot.

Police were reluctant to comment or take stiff action against
these officers even though they knew about the raid, said the
sources.

"By law, it's only the police who are allowed to question and
arrest civilians," said one of the sources, who refused to be
named.

Tati said that if the men were not from the City Police, the
organization hoped that the police would promptly investigate the
matter.

Moreover, she added, the "policemen" showed no arrest or
search warrants.

In its complaint filed on Monday, the organization said that
the men who claimed to be City Police officers, broke into the
office without legal documents.

"These methods clearly violate the Criminal Code (in which
warrants are compulsory) and the presumption of innocence..", the
complaint read.

The organization demanded that the City Police -- "if the men
were really from the City Police" -- immediately return all the
items, including those urgently needed for advocacy work for
migrant workers.

The office items seized "have no relation to the July 27
incident," Tati said. (team)