Second senior police officer exonerated in Abepura case

Andi Hajramurni and Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, Jayapura

Ignoring mounting opposition, a Makassar human rights court again acquitted from all charges a police officer accused of failing to stop gross human rights violations in Abepura, Papua five years ago.

A panel of five judges found on Friday that defendant Sr. Comr. Daud Sihombing, then chief of the Jayapura Police, could not be held responsible for the retaliatory raids by police that claimed the lives of three Papuans.

On Thursday the same judges also acquitted Brig. Gen. Johny Wainal Usman, the former chief of Jayapura Mobile Police Brigade (Brimob).

In the court session on Friday, the judges found that the defendant led a raid in Abepura in December 2000 in search of villagers who earlier attacked a the town's police headquarters and burned down a government office. That attack claimed the lives of one police officer and one civilian.

The retaliatory police and Brimob raids saw 99 Papuans rounded up. Three of these people died while in police custody while many others were severely beaten or tortured.

Despite the fatalities, the panel of judges argued the violence committed by the police, while it was in excess of normal police operations, was not a systematic and meticulously planned operation; a criteria for gross human rights violations.

Judges ruled the defendant must be acquitted of all charges. Responding to the court verdict, prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office declared they would appeal.

Shortly after hearing the final verdict, dozens of spectators at the court room, mostly police officers, clapped happily and approached defendant Daud Sihombing to congratulate and hug him.

Outside the court, about 100 Papuans and human rights activists staged a angry demonstration.

Carrying a coffin, the protesters marched three kilometers from Losari beach to the court. Unfurling banners and posters, they also spread flowers nearby the court building, which they said symbolized the death of justice.

A minor scuffle later occurred between police and protesters when the demonstrators were denied access to the compound. They were later let in under tight police guard of more than 100 officers.

Meanwhile in Jayapura, some victims of the Abepura violence expressed their grief over the verdict.

A victim, Penias Lokpere, said that law in Indonesia was created to protect the establishment, instead of being set up to protect justice.