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)