the police singled out in the tragedy of the Malang stadium – Liberation

A few days after the tragedy at Malang stadium, Indonesian fans are now scrutinizing Saturday’s tragic post-match recordings that are circulating virally on social media. We can clearly see total chaos taking over the stadium, despite goals that are often shaken or of poor quality, with a lawn and bleachers smoked under tear gas, people blocked, police beat supporters who invaded the lawn with truncheons.

Thanks to these videos, the story of one of the worst dramas in the world of football is now revisited. If, in the first hours after the events, the media around the world did not fail to recall the reputation of virulent supporters of the Indonesians, this sole explanation no longer holds, with in particular the announcement of the death of 32 children – the youngest aged 2 or 3, depending on the government – ​​present in the stadium. More than 300 people were injured and are between life and death. Forty-eight hours after the tragedy, it is police violence that is in question, especially the use of tear gas contrary to the laws of Fifa.

“Total Panic”

For Firzie Idris, sports journalist who covered this match where the team playing at home lost against their historic opponent, it was these asphyxiating fumes that turned the initial violence into tragedy. “The players of the losing team were going around the stadium to apologize for this defeat to their fans and some then wanted to approach them to talk to them by climbing the barriers”, he tells Release. “The police started pushing them back with truncheons, which led to the fans fighting back. But as it all happened in the middle of the field, the whole stadium saw it and more and more fans climbed the barriers. Then came the tear gas, launched on the lawn but also in the stands to dissuade other supporters from coming, and there was total panic, the asphyxiated people wanted to flee without succeeding.

Indonesia has already experienced violence in stadiums or between supporters, with 78 people killed between 1995 and 2022. “Indonesian football has seen many violent episodes, concedes Firzie Idris. But, until then, it was mainly happening on the outskirts of the stadium, and there were one or two deaths, which, of course, is already far too many. In addition, normally, when the supporters invade the field, we always see despite everything a de-escalation of the violence, and especially material damage.

Faced with the spectacular death toll and the attention of the whole world, the Indonesian authorities have changed their discourse vis-à-vis the supporters, recalls Andy Fuller, a researcher specializing in Indonesian football: “We usually see a very condescending posture from Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president, and the police force who always blame the fans whenever there is the slightest incident.”

“Terracotta Dogs”

Faced with international outcry, expressed in particular by Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, and the rising anger of supporters, the Indonesian authorities ended up announcing on Monday the suspension of nine police officers and the dismissal of the local police chief. However, for Andy Fuller, the responsibility of the Indonesian authorities exceeds that of the only local police present that evening. “The problems of the Indonesian stadiums are mainly structural. No investment is made to make stadiums safer or matches fairer, ensuring that leagues run smoothly without corruption or match-fixing. Trust is therefore already very weak between authorities and supporters, and any event is conducive to electrifying these two groups who are already looking at each other like earthenware dogs, all this in aging infrastructures. he explains.

In terms of infrastructure, the Indonesian government knows how to be ambitious. Despite the ambient economic gloom and growing criticism from environmentalists, the President has indeed not given up on his project for a new futuristic capital which must emerge from the ground in the middle of the Borneo forest from 2024.