Indonesia protests put spotlight on paramilitary police force

JAKARTA: Viral footage of a tactical van crashing into a young delivery driver in Indonesia’s capital before rolling over his body has sparked renewed anger against a police force long known for its heavy-handed tactics.

Seven officers inside the van were detained for violating the police ethics code at the protest against low wages and financial perks for lawmakers, while the president pledged an investigation.

But protests have since erupted across the country over the incident, the latest in a string of cases where Indonesia’s militarised police force — the Mobile Brigade Corps, or Brimob — has been accused of overreaction leading to civilian death.

“Brimob is actually a militaristic police force with their own heavy weapons. It is historically used to deal with armed movements but over the last decade more often assigned to work against street protests,” said Human Rights Watch’s Andreas Harsono.

The unit has therefore “often employed excessive force when dealing with street protests, initially in places like West Papua, but lately also in Jakarta and other urban areas,” he added.

Brimob has its origins in the Japanese colonial era when it was formed as a special police force, before being turned into a post-independence paramilitary unit used to quell internal rebellions.

It has since crushed radical Islamist groups and anchored the government’s bloody fight against separatists in Papua, Aceh and East Timor.

The unit now effectively acts as the special operations force of the Indonesian police and has grown in influence after the fall of military dictator Suharto in the late 1990s.

Since the election of president Joko Widodo in 2014 and the rise of his defense minister Prabowo Subianto to replace him last year, the national police force has been handsomely funded to militarise itself.

And its Brimob unit has since been used to crush government opponents and even defend financial interests such as plantations and mining operations, activists and experts say.

“They are pretty much involved in several large mass protests to do a crowd control function,” said Dimas Bagus Arya, coordinator of the human rights organization KontraS.

“They have the same credo as the military, which is kill or be killed.”

He said Brimob have been deployed in restive Papua, where a low-lying insurgency is still rumbling, on joint operations with the military, in which Prabowo once served as a special forces commander.

Indonesia’s national police did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

While the protests began over economic conditions, deep-rooted anger against the police has manifested itself on Indonesia’s streets in recent days and amplified the unrest.

On Saturday night, a police headquarters was set on fire in the East Java city of Surabaya with expletives aimed at the force spray-painted on the road.

Such anger comes from previous incidents that people believe were unjust.

In 2022 a stadium stampede in East Java left more than 130 people dead after police fired tear gas into the stands after some fans invaded the pitch.

The crush was one of the deadliest disasters in football history.

Only several officers were held and all received light sentences.

In 2019 at least 10 protesters were unlawfully killed in post-election riots, most of them by gunshot, in cases that were not brought to justice, according to rights groups.

“This is not only because one driver was hit, but this is the accumulation of all of the police problems,” Ardi Manto Adiputra, director of human rights group Imparsial, told AFP.

Many Indonesians fear a culture of impunity for the police will continue, with close ties between the force and government giving the impression they are intertwined.

“Human rights violations committed by Brimob have almost never been taken into a civilian court of law,” said Amnesty International Indonesia’s Usman Hamid.

“One of the root causes is lack of accountability.”

The country’s intelligence chief Budi Gunawan was deputy of the national police force, while interior minister Tito Karnavian is a former head of police, and former police officer Eddy Hartono is the head of the counterterrorism agency.

Some say that without government action to reform the very force many of them worked in, little will change.

“The first thing that needs to be addressed by the president, the government, is to make a roadmap of reform of the police,” said Ardi.

“If not, this means nothing. The masses will always feel disappointed and keep their feeling of revenge toward the police in the future.”

Don’t miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered across the nation on Sunday — including 20,000 in Sydney — to rally against what they argue are unsustainable levels of immigration into Australia.

Protesters gathered amid a sea of Australian flags at events in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and other centres, concerned over the levels of immigration under the Albanese Government.

While mostly peaceful, the rallies were not without incident, including in Sydney where members of neo-Nazi groups mingled with fellow protesters and even led the march.

Calls of “heil white Australia” were heard in Sydney, while others were fired upon with rubber bullets in Melbourne, after rallies spilt out and attracted tens of thousands across the country.

The March for Australia protests were condemned by the Albanese Government ahead of rally-goers taking to the streets.

The March For Australia anti-immigration rally in Sydney. There is no suggestion anyone pictured is a member of the National Socialist Network. Picture: Supplied

At a series of speeches held in Sydney’s Victoria Park, a black-clad man grasped a megaphone and yelled that servicemen who fought at Gallipoli “fought for a white Australia”.

“We must resist. Heil white Australia,” he shouted.

The rally included members of the National Socialist Network, who formed a line at the front of the march. Picture: NewsWire / Simon Bullard

At Adelaide’s rally, a man was seen with a placard featuring a picture of fugitive cop killer Dezi Freeman, with the sign including the words ‘Free Man’ and the Southern Cross.

In Melbourne, violence broke out as anti-immigration and pro-Palestine protesters clashed, with police firing rubber bullets and throwing concussion grenades as thousands flooded the CBD.

The anti-immigration march in Sydney was one of three rallies in the CBD, with a counter rally organised by the Refugee Action Coalition and the regular Sunday pro-Palestine rally at Hyde Park also taking place.

A man holds a placard with an image of fugitive Dezi Freeman at anti-immigration protest in Adelaide. Picture: Getty Images

Police confirmed just one woman was arrested during the protests despite the threat of the parties clashing.

“The female person was directing abuse at the Palestinian Action Group, which was causing distress and was a concern to other members of the community,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Scott Tenner said.

Police confirmed they knew of the involvement of neo-Nazi linked individuals ahead of the event, but said there would be no further investigation at this stage.

One of the event’s key organisers – who uses the online pseudonym Bec Freedom – told The Daily Telegraph “no, definitely not” when asked if it was planned for the NSN to lead the march from Belmore Park to Victoria Park.

The online identity, who marched with an e-cigarette and an Australian flag clutched in her hand, was joined by thousands who also carried Eureka or boxing kangaroo flags. NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick was one of the few politicians to attend, with the Upper House MP speaking at the rally to call for a five-year pause on immigration.

When members of the NSN spoke at the same rally they were booed by sections of the crowd, which also broke into chants throughout the event including “Aussie nation, stop the immigration”.

Police and Counter-Terrorism Minister Yasmin Catley thanked the police after the rallies.

“They faced an incredible load with the Sydney Marathon and multiple major protests and the efforts of these officers cannot be overstated,” she said.

“They saturated the city to ensure that everyone attending could do so in a safe manner.”

NSW Opposition police spokesman Paul Toole said having the Sydney CBD shutdown every weekend with protests made the city a “laughing stock” and said three protests running concurrently showed the government was “too gutless to act”.

“People in NSW are just fed up with the NSW government because they feel they’ve just waved the white flag and surrendered the city to protests,” Mr Toole said.

Thousands have assembled for the March for Australia anti-immigration rally in Sydney today. There is no suggestion anyone pictured is a member of the National Socialist Network Picture: Supplied

“Week after week, citizens are stuck in gridlock, shopkeepers are losing trade and families are paying the price all because the NSW government is too gutless to act.”

Ahead of the marches, federal Environment Minister Murray Watt said the Albanese Government “absolutely condemn(s)” the rallies.

“It is not about increasing social harmony. We think, and I think the vast majority of Australians think, that multiculturalism has been a good thing for our country,” he told Sky News. “We don’t support rallies like this that are about spreading hate and that are about dividing our community.”

Federal Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson described material posted by organisers and targeting Indian Australians as “shameful and wrong”, but said pro-Palestine protests which have continued weekly around the country have also been “deeply distressing” to the Jewish community, adding: “I don’t think that marching alongside neo-Nazis is conducive to social cohesion.’’

Hours after the protests, police said two men were arrested for allegedly assaulting a male constable who had responded to a brawl outside Bar Broadway in Sydney’s CBD.

While police did not say whether those involved were connected with the protests, video from the scene showed officers dispersing a crowd that included men carrying Australian flags.

No charges had been laid last night.

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Thousands join ‘hateful’ Australia march

‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups

Reuters, SYDNEY

Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis.

“March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site.

“Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said.

A protester wearing a shirt showing an image of US President Donald Trump takes part in a “March for Australia” anti-immigration rally in Melbourne yesterday. Photo: AFP

The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.”

The group also said it was concerned about culture, wages, traffic, housing and water supply, environmental destruction, infrastructure, hospitals, crime and loss of community.

Australia — where one in two people is either born overseas or has a parent born overseas — has been grappling with a rise in right-wing extremism, including protests by neo-Nazis.

National Socialist Network member Thomas Sewell, center, leads his supporters during a “March for Australia” anti-immigration rally in Melbourne yesterday. Photo: AFP

“We absolutely condemn the March for Australia rally that’s going on today. It is not about increasing social harmony,” Murray Watt, a senior minister in the Labor government, told Sky News television when asked about the rally in Sydney, the country’s most-populous city.

“We don’t support rallies like this that are about spreading hate and that are about dividing our community,” Watt said, adding that they were “organized and promoted” by neo-Nazi groups.

March for Australia organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the neo-Nazi claims.

Laws banning the Nazi salute and the display or sale of symbols associated with terror groups came into effect in Australia this year in response to a string of anti-Semitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.

Some 5,000 to 8,000 people, many draped in Australian flags, had assembled for the Sydney rally, the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) said.

It was held near the course of the Sydney Marathon, where 35,000 runners pounded the streets yesterday, finishing at the city’s Opera House.

Also nearby, a counter-rally by the Refugee Action Coalition, a community activist organization, took place.

“Our event shows the depth of disgust and anger about the far-right agenda of March For Australia,” a coalition spokesperson said in a statement.

Organizers said hundreds attended the event.

Police said hundreds of officers were deployed across Sydney in an operation that ended “with no significant incidents.”

A large March for Australia rally was held in central Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, according to aerial footage from the ABC, which reported that riot officers used pepper spray on demonstrators.

Australian Member of Parliament Bob Katter, the leader of a small populist party, attended a March for Australia rally in Queensland, a party spokesperson said, three days after the veteran lawmaker threatened a reporter for mentioning Katter’s Lebanese heritage at a press conference when the topic of his attendance at the rally was being discussed.

Katter was “swarmed with hundreds of supporters” at the rally in Townsville, Brisbane’s Courier-Mail reported.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with families of soldiers killed in overseas military operations, promising them a beautiful life, the state-run media said in a statement released with pictures on Saturday.

It follows last week’s ceremony in the capital, Pyongyang, where Kim paid tribute to soldiers who returned from combat in Ukraine, an event where the North Korean leader was seen sobbing in tears and placing posthumous state awards on the soldiers’ corpses.

According to Saturday’s statement from the Korean Central News Agency KCNA, Kim expressed deep condolences to all the bereaved families of the officers who fell in the battlegrounds on foreign lands.

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The news of the death of your beloved children and husbands must have come as a great shock to you all, since you did not know whether they were alive or not, Kim was quoted as saying.

Our Party and government will bring all the glory to the heroes revered by the whole nation and to their excellent parents who brought them up to be admirable men. They will also do their best to provide you, ahead of others, with a beautiful life in the country defended at the cost of the lives of the martyrs, Kim said.

According to KCNA, Kim presented the photos of the martyrs to the families at a ceremony on Friday at the Mokran House, a venue used for high-level meetings in Pyongyang.

FILE – In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, meets soldiers who took part in a training in North Korea, on March 13, – AP Photo

The number of casualties remains unclear

In April, Pyongyang confirmed that it had sent troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying that some of its soldiers had been killed in combat, without specifying the number.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin later issued a statement thanking North Korea and promising not to forget the sacrifices of North Korean soldiers.

The North Korean deployment, according to Kim and Putin, was carried out in accordance with their nations’ historic 2024 defense treaty, which requires that both sides give assistance in the event of an attack on the other.

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Estimates from the United States, South Korea, and Ukraine show North Korea sent between 10,000–12,000 troops to Russia last October.

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Pyongyang dispatched over 3,000 more personnel to Russia earlier this year, according to a March statement from South Korea’s military.

The number of casualties reported is unclear; however, in April, South Korea’s spy agency claimed an estimated 4,700 North Korean soldiers were reported to have been killed or wounded while fighting alongside Russia against Ukrainian forces.

Thousands of Australians participated in “March for Australia” rallies across major cities on Sunday, with promotional materials specifically targeting Indian migrants despite widespread government condemnation linking the events to neo-Nazi groups.

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The demonstrations, held in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and other cities, drew between 5,000-8,000 participants in Sydney alone. Rally flyers prominently featured anti-Indian sentiment, stating “More Indians in 5 years, than Greeks and Italians in 100,” referring to the Indian-born population that has doubled since 2013 to reach 845,800 people, now comprising over 3% of Australia’s population.

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Organisers claimed to be a “grassroots effort” seeking to end mass immigration, arguing it has damaged community bonds. However, the events drew significant controversy when neo-Nazi figure Thomas Sewell addressed the Melbourne rally, declaring “our death is certain” if immigration continues.

Violence erupted in Melbourne where police used pepper spray and arrested six people during clashes with counter-demonstrators. Two officers were injured in the confrontations involving an estimated 5,000 people across both sides.

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The rallies faced unanimous political condemnation. Federal Labour minister Murray Watt stated the events were “about spreading hate,” whilst Home Affairs minister Tony Burke declared there was “no place” for such divisive activities. Opposition leader Sussan Ley also condemned the violence and racism.

Some participants expressed concerns about strained public services, housing shortages and hospital wait times. Federal MP Bob Katter and One Nation’s Pauline Hanson attended rallies, though most mainstream politicians distanced themselves from the events.

The demonstrations highlight rising far-right activity in Australia, where nearly half the population has overseas heritage. Recent antisemitic attacks since October 2023 prompted new laws banning Nazi symbols and salutes, with mandatory prison sentences for violations.