Indonesian recalls stinging tear gas in deadly soccer melee
By
JOSEPH FITSANAKIS
PUBLISHED:
THE HINDU TIMES
THE INDONESIAN PRESS
THE HINDU TIMES
THE HINDU TIMES
December 18, 2010
MANY people living in Indonesia have already moved on. But the burning tragedy of last week’s brutal attack on an ASEAN football club, in a crowded stadium filled with fans, will haunt them forever.
Like the victims of other mass killings in Asia, the victims of last Wednesday’s attack at Padang was young, poor and female – victims of crime which is rarely discussed or punished in Indonesia.
It was, by all accounts and measures, a well planned, brilliantly executed massacre of the ASEAN club, Persepolis, and hundreds of other people, including police, supporters and the club’s own fans, who came to support the team.
An official investigation by the prosecutor’s office has yet to be completed; but if it confirms the killing of a large number of people, including club staff and players, then a new precedent will have been set in Indonesia for the handling of crimes involving mass killings.
For the first time in its history, the country has a government and judiciary deeply committed to stopping such killings, which have become the scourge of Indonesia, where there are now a record 10,000.
In a country where the police are rarely trained or equipped to tackle the crime of murder, the attack at Persepolis provides a terrifying wake-up call, as if a country were waking up to how easy it could be for someone to pull the trigger on innocent people.
It is, of course, one thing for a government to take up this challenge. It is another for the police to take it up, to work with prosecutors, the judiciary and their political masters in the legislature.
But it has been a
