IDNEWSNOW.COM, Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) researcher Danu Pratama on Thursday said Indonesia’s democracy continues to be marred by violations of freedom of expression.
He believes it is evident in the 87 cases regarding freedom-breaches during the country’s heated moments related to the protests against the Job Creation Law.
“Amongst them were 232 people injured and 4,555 others were arrested,” said Danu in a virtual press conference commemorating the human rights day on Thursday, Dec. 10.
According to Him, KontraS found numerous cases where police used crowd-controlling weapons to control protestors from the use of water cannons, rubber bullets, up to the uses of batons. He maintains that the main problem relies on how the aforementioned tools were used.
KontraS also highlights the fact that the government, and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, had failed to act upon information arising regarding brute force used by authorities during the anti-omnibus law protests and only claimed that the protesters were hooked by disinformation on social media.
The human rights watchdog says that the repressiveness from authorities was not met with accountability and fears similar situations will repeat in the future.
Read: KontraS Records 40 Violence Acts in Papua throughout 2020
DEWI NURITA
