Rights commission members visit 'preman'

Rights commission members visit 'preman'

JAKARTA (JP): Members of the National Commission on Human
Rights visited street hoodlums in police custody yesterday and
inspected the Blok M shopping area to collect data on police
treatment and public opinion about the thugs.

"The conclusions drawn from today's inspection will be
revealed in a press conference tomorrow afternoon," Baharuddin
Lopa, a member of the state-sponsored body, told reporters
yesterday after meeting with City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo
Widodo.

Lopa was accompanied by four other commission members, Bambang
Soeharto, a businessman, Albert Hasibuan, a lawyer, Asmara
Nababan, a non-governmental organization activist, and Soegiri,
an assistant to the attorney general.

The members of the commission apparently sought permission to
visit the hoodlums who are in custody and undergoing questioning,
from the police chief.

According to Hasibuan, one of the commission's purposes is to
check the condition of the detained suspects, particularly a
group of nine Blok M hoodlums believed to have stabbed a police
officer to death and to have wounded another.

After the meeting with Dibyo, Lopa and his colleagues drove to
the South Jakarta police precinct, where a number of suspected
hoodlums, locally known as preman, are being held pending further
investigation.

Flanked by the local police chief, Lt. Col. S.Y. Wenas, and a
senior precinct staff member, the five members of the commission
were led into the clean and spacious jail on the fourth floor of
the new South Jakarta precinct building.

Interview

During the visit, the commission members interviewed at least
five suspected hoodlums, including those allegedly involved in
last week's attack on the police officers.

During their talk with Ricki Wattiwena, 28, who was arrested
for possession of a sharp weapon, which he allegedly used to
collect debts in the Blok M area, Lopa asked whether he had any
bad experiences during interrogation.

Staring at the police personnel near Lopa, Ricki took a deep
breath and said: "No."

Other questions raised by the visitors concerned the condition
of the suspects, the interrogation process, police treatment of
the prisoners, what they were served at meals and the situations
of their families.

The commission members advised all of the suspects to turn to
God and away from their former ways in the future.

"So far, I see everything's on the right track," Lopa told The
Jakarta Post.

During the short visit, the group also met three of the nine
men suspected of attacking the two police officers on March 6.
They all said that they had been well treated by the police.

"I get no bad treatment from the interrogating officers here,"
one of the suspects said.

Another suspect in the case was shot to death by the police
when he tried to escape.

Intensify

The attack on the two middle-ranking officers, who were
studying at Jakarta's Police College, moved the authorities to
intensify their operation against the preman and other suspected
criminals nationwide.

It is believed that thousands of hoodlums have been arrested
in many big cities for terrorizing local communities.

At the Blok M shopping center in South Jakarta, for example,
young thugs can no longer be seen sitting in groups getting high
on alcohol or drugs.

The huge and crowded Blok M shopping area is widely known as
one of many the bases for the operations of the preman, who run
in a variety of different groups.

The visit by members of the Human Rights National Commission
to the area yesterday was intended to collect information from
street vendors and visitors about the existence and activities of
the preman.

"We need to collect all available information to enable us to
make a conclusion," Lopa said yesterday. (bsr)