Amnesty: Police abuse rampant in Indonesia

Jun 24, 2009, 6:49 GMT

   Jakarta - Torture and other forms of ill-treatment carried out by Indonesian police remain rampant despite the government's efforts to reform the police force, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released Wednesday.

   The Amnesty report, titled Unfinished Business: Police Accountability in Indonesia, said criminal suspects including repeat offenders, drug users and sex workers were subjected to torture and abuse during arrests, interrogation and detention.

   'The police's primary role is to enforce the law and protect human rights, yet all too often many police officers behave as if they are above the law,' said Donna Guest, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific deputy director.

   The report said the government had made efforts to improve police accountability, but the changes had failed to stamp out cases of physical abuse and intimidation.

   Amnesty said the report was based on interviews with abuse victims, police officers, lawyers and human rights groups in Indonesia over the last two years.

   Many of those interviewed said police often tried to extract bribes from them in return for better treatment, according to Amnesty.

   The group quoted a 21-year-old prostitute detained by police as saying that she could get off if she paid 1 million rupiah (96 dollars) or if she had sex with officers.

   National police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira acknowledged there were cases of abuse of detainees, but said the Amnesty report was 'not entirely true.'

   'We received reports of abuse and after checking, some of them were true but in many cases they were false,' he told the German Press Agency dpa.

   Amnesty urged the government to conduct investigations into every credible report and bring to justice those found responsible.