Violent mobs have resurfaced in the past few years, with the police often accused of incompetence in failing to prevent them. Now they plan to create a special detachment to handle riots, but critics said the move was not the solution.

National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo has announced that the police force is preparing to set up an “anti-anarchy detachment”, which will specifically clamp down on riots and handle violent clashes.

“I think this [plan] is the answer to settle problems such as those in Temanggung and Cikeusik,” Timur said last week, referring to last month’s attacks and vandalism of three churches in Temanggung, Central Java and the brutal violence against the Ahmadiyah congregation in Cikeusik, Banten, which left three Ahmadis dead.

Timur’s statement was in response to widespread criticism of the police, who were considered ineffective in anticipating and handling the violent clashes. With shoot-on-sight authority, Timur claimed the detachment was a “breakthrough and innovation in controlling riots in the field.”

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said the detachment would be allowed to use live bullets if protestors became uncooperative or attacked officers. “The shooting would be to immobilize, not to kill. The squad would be trained in special skills to incapacitate rioters, especially the provocateurs or masterminds,” Boy said, adding that only a small number of the unit members would carry firearms while the rest would use tear gas.

He said high-risk regions, such as Jakarta, West Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, South Sumatra and North Sumatra, would be prioritized for the detachment. Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman said as many as 400 officers had been recruited to join the new squad.

Human rights activists, however, accused the plan as “an effort to escape responsibility.”

Al Araf from Imparsial said on Sunday that the squad could instead exacerbate threats against human rights. The police, along with the Indonesian Military (TNI), topped the National Commission for Human Rights’ (Komnas HAM) 2010 list of state agencies with most complaints. “The police have actually already been equipped with units specialized for riots like Samapta and Brimob [Mobile Brigade]. The two units are more than sufficient to handle clashes if they are optimized and utilized properly,” he said.

Samapta is stationed down to district level police posts. Its members are trained as quick-response officers to handle riots, demonstrations and other kinds of mass activities. Like the planned anti-anarchy unit, the Mobile Brigade is placed down to province-level police headquarters. With heavier equipment, the squad is tasked with dealing with higher-risk mass movements, escalated riots, and organized crime. The Gegana bomb squad is a subsidiary of this unit.

These two units, however, were frequently “misused” as security guards for private companies, particularly mining and farming firms, allegedly involving them in clashes with civilians. “In remote areas, most of the reported human rights violations by the police against locals were conducted by Brimob officers,” Al Araf said.

Human rights NGOs and the Komnas HAM have also repeatedly criticized the police’s Detachment 88 anti-terror squad, which allegedly violated human rights in their raids against terrorist suspects.

“What Timur should do is bring the force back to its original duty rather than make a new unit that may instead bring new problems,” Al Araf said.

The Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) strongly opposed the anti-anarchy unit, urging the parliament to ask the National Police to retract the plan.

Such a detachment would be idle when there were no riots, and could induce fabrications in order to justify its existence and budget allocation, IPW chairman Neta S.
Pane said.

“In several cases, certain police members have been accused of case-fabrication and criminalizing certain parties,” Neta said, adding that the police would be better off allocating funds to improving the performance of the intelligence unit.

National Police detective chief Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi denied that the new unit plan was linked to the force’s effort to seek more funds from the state. “The unit’s functions have actually been in place for a long time. We are just trying to optimize them,” he said last week.

Haris Azhar, of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said setting up a new unit would be pointless if the police remained weak in enforcing existing laws.

Komnas HAM commissioner Ridha Saleh said the police should focus their efforts on dealing with the root causes by using persuasive measures rather than repressive approaches.