Authorities say police have been told to act with force if resistance is met
Indonesian police have fatally shot dozens of “petty criminals” in the lead up the 2018 Asian Games, rights group Amnesty International says.
The group condemned the deaths, calling for an investigation into the “shoot first and ask questions later policy”.
At least 77 people have reportedly been shot dead since January, Amnesty said, with 31 deaths in police raids meant to clean up host cities for the Games.
Authorities have said that people were shot after resisting the police.
The raids began in July with high-ranking officials telling their officers “don’t hesitate to take firm action”, the BBC’s Indonesian service reported.
The two-week-long Asian Games, which starts on Saturday, will take place in the capital Jakarta and the South Sumatran city of Palembang.
Authorities are deploying 100,000 police and soldiers for the 18th annual event, which will see some 17,000 athletes compete between 18 August and 2 September in the largest multi-sporting event outside of the Olympics.
“The authorities promised to improve security for all. Instead, we have seen the police shooting and killing dozens of people with almost zero accountability for the deaths,” head of Amnesty Indonesia, Usman Hamid, said.
“The hosting of an international sporting event must not come at the price of abandoning human rights.”
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