REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Police have arrested and are questioning 25 people suspected to be provocateurs and looters in connection with the rioting that happened after the end of the peaceful demonstration on Friday. "Ten people are being questioned as alleged provocateurs on Medan Merdeka Barat Street," Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, National Police spokesman, said at a press conference here on Saturday.
The suspects aged between 16 and 31 years old have been confirmed to have come from various regions outside the city in Java as well as West Nusa Tenggara.
Boy said the police has also arrested 15 people for looting a mini-market in Luar Batang, Penjaringan, North Jakarta, by utilizing the benefit of momentum of the demonstration. "We find that their actions were purely criminal. Certainly, there must be the mastermind that had mobilized them. Their motive certainly was not demonstration but going to the jail," he said.
The people, who are residents of the fishing neighborhoods in Muara Baru, have been confirmed as not being part of Islamic organizations that conducted the demonstration at Monas (National Monument) and Merdeka Palace. They have spontaneously been motivated to commit the crime after seeing rioting in Monas and Merdeka Palace through the media. Boy said their legal status will be determined within 24 hours.
Hundreds of thousands of people from various Islamic organizations staged a demonstration peacefully on Friday, but at 19.30pm the police disperse them by firing teargas. Boy explained there was a man who tried to stab police officer with sharpened bamboo. Others attacked the police by pelting stones and pieces of wood and also burned their cars. The police responded by firing teargas in an effort to disperse them.
At a press conference on Saturday, Coordinator of Gerakan Nasional Pengawal Fatwa Majelis Ulama Indonesia (National Movement to Escort Indonesian Council of Ulama's Fatwa) Bachtiar Nasir said one of the movement's negotiator was having a negotiation with Vice President, Coordinating Minister of Defense, and National Police Chief when the riot took place.
According to Bachtiar, the Vice President was shocked to hear gunshot. Coordinating Minister of Defense and National Police Chief then shouted to stop the firing, but their personnel did not response.
The demonstrators demanded acceleration of the police investigation to determine the legal status of Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok), with regard to the blasphemous remark he had allegedly made at a meeting with people in Kepulauan Seribu, North Jakarta, on late September.
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