JAYAPURA (Joyo/Agence France-Presse//Pacific Media Watch): An Indonesian journalist who was treated in hospital last Thursday after being stabbed in the stomach and chest had covered a police sex scandal, police and activists said.
Banjir Ambarita, a reporter for the English-language daily The Jakarta Globe and the news portal Vivanews, was ambushed by two men on a motorcycle in the easternmost Papua province, said Lt. Col. Wachjono, a police provincial spokesman.
He promised the case would be investigated.
Ambarita had written about three police officers who confessed to sexually abusing a female detainee, Wachjono said, noting that the case also also was covered by other media outlets.
Eko Maryadi, a member of the Independent Journalists' Alliance (AJI), said it was the sixth attack on a media worker this year.
Indonesian police said four officers would be charged over the "unforgivable" gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in the province.
The officers, along with three civilians, allegedly took turns raping the girl in a house in Biak city in February, Wachyono told AFP.
"We have completed our investigations. Some of the suspects confessed to the rape, some didn't," he said.
"But we have spoken to witnesses and collected enough evidence to show they were guilty of rape and we'll be taking the case to court."
Local media reported that the men locked the teenager in a room and raped her repeatedly over a period of days. She was beaten if she resisted and lost consciousness as a result of the abuse.
"The officers committed a grave wrongdoing, a violation that is unforgivable and uncondonable and deserving of severe punishment. They have sullied the good name of the national police," Wachyono said.
Police are also investigating the alleged rape of a Papuan women who was forced to give oral sex to officers while she was being held in custody in the Papuan provincial capital of Jayapura.
Three police officers are suspected of raping the married woman on multiple occasions between November and January, while she was being held for alleged gambling.
Local media reported that she had tried to kill herself during the ordeal.
"The victim's family have lodged a police report so we're starting criminal charges against the officers," Wachyono said, adding that the suspects were being "made to stand in the sun" as punishment.
"At the moment, the officers are receiving disciplinary sanction. They are being detained for 21 days, made to stand in the sun and have had their promotions delayed," he said.
Jayapura city police chief Imam Setiawan resigned last Tuesday over the case, a rare move by a senior officer in a police force that is notorious for corruption and torture of detainees.
Indonesian security forces are frequently accused of rights violations in Papua, which has seen a low-level insurgency by poorly-armed rebels since its incorporation into Indonesia in the mid-1960s.
Human rights activists and the United Nations say Indonesian police regularly torture and beat suspects in custody, while extortion is rife throughout the country's prisons.
* See earlier report on Pacific Media Watch - item 7302:
http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/2011-03-07/west-papua-polic...
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