Street justice gaining popularity

JAKARTA (JP): The continuing series of brutal mob killings of suspected criminals by residents in the capital has stunned many people.

Many condemn the frenzied behavior of the residents, while others understand the anger that causes people to deal out their own justice to those found committing crimes in their neighborhoods.

The forensic department of state-owned Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, the only institution permitted to receive dead bodies of suspected criminals for post-mortem examinations, says it has received at least 73 bodies of alleged criminals killed by mobs so far this year.

Twenty-two were recorded in January, 11 in February, 16 in March, 11 in April, and five in May, said a report released last week.

So far this month, the hospital has received eight bodies said to be victims of angry mobs.

There is no record of the number of people injured in such mob attacks, but one could speculate that the number would be much higher than those killed.

What is apparent though is that the frequency of mob killings has continued to grow, as has the cruelty of the mobs.

One of the most common ways for mobs in the capital to kill people allegedly caught committing crimes in their areas is to burn them alive.

"I rarely saw this practice until this year, but it has increased nowadays," Mardiyono, head of the hospital's morgue, told The Jakarta Post.

In the past, he said, suspected criminals caught by residents would be severely beaten by residents but then handed over to police.

One of the most tragic incidents took place at midnight on Sunday in West Jakarta, where an 18-year-old high school student was burned to death by angry residents at a local makeshift market on Jl. Daan Mogot, Rawa Buaya.

The young man, Indra Yulhelmi, alias Atang, was reportedly spotted by the locals attempting to remove the side mirror of a car parked in the residential area.

Witness Mamad, alias Endut, an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver told the Post on Wednesday at the site: "The locals first clobbered the boy with anything available until a person showered him with kerosene and set him on fire."

A few hours later on that same night, another alleged thief in Depok, south of Jakarta, was attacked and killed by a mob of locals after being found breaking into a neighbor's house.

Such a merciless attitude has appeared among residents in many corners of the capital, particularly in densely populated residential areas.

When asked to comment, people expressed vastly different views on the issue.

Some urged the police force to improve its image to avoid the occurrence of people taking the law into their own hands.

No for police

Many city residents cannot rely on the police to provide security in their areas and take criminals to court, thus they seek their own form of justice on the streets.

Others lashed out at the bad tempers of the residents, saying they had no sense of humanity.

Still other people expressed support for the militant locals for taking the law into their own hands, saying such efforts would be a good lesson to other criminals.

"It's natural, because people here have been so irritated by crimes taking place endlessly," commented a Rawa Buaya resident.

"If you had experienced being robbed, you would do the same thing to release your vengeance," he said, adding, "It's also useful to scare away other criminals."

Such actions also give the police problems in their endeavors to impose the law.

In most cases, police failed to bring people to court for the murders.

The officers repeatedly used the same excuse: that the incidents were spontaneous and involved large numbers of people.

But many residents, including expatriates, consider it important for police to use their authority to bring an immediate stop to the spread of this "social disease".

"People would have their own trials if they did not trust the law authority anymore," commented S.H. Norbert Barlocher- Caflisch, first secretary for economic and legal affairs at the Swiss Embassy here.

Mikiko Nihei, an employee in the information department at the Japanese Embassy, added: "People should trust that police will treat criminals in line with the law. So that when people catch criminals red-handed, they will deliver them to police without punishing them on the spot," she said.

Sociologist Sardjono Djatiman, from the University of Indonesia, supported these arguments.

He said that the city's law enforcers, such as the police, judges and prosecutors, should work to improve their tarnished reputations.

"By enhancing the performance of the police and the courts in handling such cases, the social disease could be checked," he said on Wednesday.

"People are still irritated by the poor performance of police. A criminal arrested today is often released by them on the following day without a trial," Djatiman said.

Atang's mother, Yulita Anita, expressed the hope that no one else would ever have to experience the horrible end her son faced.

"If my boy is guilty, he deserves to receive his fate. But, if he is not, I'll let God make His own judgment (on those who killed Atang) on Judgment Day," she told the Post in tears. (asa)