Indonesia: Police top human rights complaints

The police was the arm of government most often reported to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas Ham) in 2011, while land conflicts remained the most common source of violence reported.

A summary of the trends from about 6,000 complaints filed with Komnas Ham was presented to lawmakers at a special hearing on Monday 16 January 2012.

“Complaints about the police totaled 1,262 cases,” the head of Komnas HAM, Ifdhal Kasim, told members of House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal matters.

Complaints about private companies were the next most common, with 775 cases, followed by 585 cases involving local governments and 377 for justice system agencies.

In contrast to decades past, the military was further down the list with 181 complaints.

Of justice system agencies, prosecutors were the subject of 174 complaints, while 53 cases related to people being detained by prison authorities.

The large number of land disputes relating to the exploitation of natural resource accounted for private companies finishing with the second-most number of complaints, Ifdhal said.

Alleged human rights violations arising from industrial disputes also accounted for a significant number of cases.

There were 155 complaints relating to local people being evicted to make way for natural resource extraction, he said.

A further 95 cases were over environmental damage, and there were 73 cases in which indigenous people claimed their rights had been violated.

“Overall, conflict was dominated by land disputes, but environmental issues, indigenous people and evictions also featured, which indicates there is a problem in natural resource management,” Ifdhal said.

Date: 17 January 2012

Source: Jakarta Globe