Police outnumbered by huge crowds during riots: Hamami
JAKARTA (JP): Former Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata said yesterday that the absence of police officers during the mid-May riots was caused mainly by an imbalance between the small number of police and the huge size of the angry crowd.
Hamami was quoted by academic Saparinah Sadli as saying during a three-hour hearing with the government-sponsored fact-finding team at the Jakarta Police headquarters that the number of police officers deployed on the streets was incomparable to size of the mobs.
"He (Hamami) said that the police fulfilled their duties in line with existing procedures but the crowds were too enormous compared to the number of personnel," she said.
According to Hamami, the number of people involved in the riots was estimated at about one million, Saparinah said.
That was probably why the police seemed to be "missing" during the three days of rioting, she said.
Hamami was the third government official to testify to the investigation team. On Thursday, the team questioned Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso after questioning former Jakarta military commander Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin the day before.
In yesterday's meeting, which started at 4 p.m., Hamami was accompanied by several police officers in charge at the time of the riots, including Col. Arthur Damanik, who was in charge of the capital's on-the-alert unit, Jakarta Police detective chief Col. Gories Mere, and the chief of the Jakarta Police control and operations command center, Col. F. Arwien.
None of the officers were willing to give any information about the meeting. They just smiled and winked at the reporters. Hamami himself ran away from media blitz.
Seen among the investigation team members were Bambang W. Soeharto of the National Commission on Human Rights, Bambang Widjojanto of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute, noted lawyer Nursjahbani Katjasungkana and businesswoman Rosita S. Noer.
Bambang W. Soeharto expressed his bewilderment at the police revelation that 22 police posts were torched during the riots.
"We had not heard about this before. This (fact) certainly corroborates the police story that the situation was very bad," he said.
In the session it was also revealed that the police experienced communications difficulties with other military forces during the unrest.
"The (police's) communication equipment cannot be used for contacting other military squads. The police's equipment could be used only among police personnel.
Minister of Women Affairs Tutty Alawiyah reiterated yesterday that the investigation team had not received any concrete data about the mid-May rapes of Chinese-Indonesian women.
"We have run an investigation over one and a half months and we haven't even found one victim of rape or sexual abuse during the riots," Tutty was quoted by Antara as saying in Jambi.
She urged people to come forward to reveal any information about rape cases.
In a related development, the Taipei Economic Trade Office denied yesterday reports in local media that quoted eight Taiwan activists who visited Indonesia in search of evidence of rapes as saying that the Indonesian government had been tricked.
The statement which said: "Your government has been tricked," was baseless, the trade office said in a statement.
During their visit, the delegation, which was led by attorney Wang Qingfeng, met with several people, including Tutty, to express their serious concern and put great hope in the investigation being undertaken by the Indonesian government, the statement said. (edt)