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Horrific Video Shows Brutality of Attack on Ahmadiyah
February 07, 2011
Horrifying video footage circulating among news organizations in Jakarta shows that Indonesian police were outnumbered and unable to prevent the brutal attacks on members of the Ahmadiyah sect that left three people dead on Sunday in a Banten village.
In the 30-minute video — apparently shot in secret by the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) — only about 30 police officers can be seen guarding the home of Ahmadiyah cleric Ismail Suparman.
They offer little resistance to a mob of about 1,500 people carrying bamboo planks and machetes, and are quickly overwhelmed.
Edited excerpts of the video have begun airing on Indonesian TV stations, but the most graphic violence has been left off the air, perhaps to avoid stirring up further religious hatred.
Twenty-one Ahmadi’s had been guarding Suparman’s house after he was detained by local police on suspicion he had been proselytizing, which is forbidden under a 2008 ministerial decree restricting Ahmadiyah’s actvities.
The video shows police attempting to persuade the Ahmadi to leave the house, with one plain-clothed officer filmed warning the group that a mob was headed for the village.
The mob subsequently stormed the village. There were no police barricades erected to prevent clashes.
“Police get out. Burn these Ahmadiyah people!” one man shouted.
The mob immediately attacked the house with rocks and the people inside were forced to flee.
A JAI official who shot the video said members of the mob wore green ribbons to differentiate friends from foes. “It was clear that they were prepared for an attack,” said the man, who spoke on the condition he not be named amid fears for his safety.
The footage also shows the mob swarming around two lifeless bodies covered in mud. The Ahmadiyah man said the pair were chased to a nearby rice field where they were killed with bamboo and stone strikes to their heads.
The crowd then dragged the bodies along the road. Others were filmed attacking the corpses.
The three people who were killed were identified as Roni, 30, Mulyadi, 30, and Tarno, 25. Five other Ahmadiyah members were severely wounded in the incident, including 45 year-old Deden Sujana, whose right arm was nearly severed by a machete.
In the 30-minute video — apparently shot in secret by the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) — only about 30 police officers can be seen guarding the home of Ahmadiyah cleric Ismail Suparman.
They offer little resistance to a mob of about 1,500 people carrying bamboo planks and machetes, and are quickly overwhelmed.
Edited excerpts of the video have begun airing on Indonesian TV stations, but the most graphic violence has been left off the air, perhaps to avoid stirring up further religious hatred.
Twenty-one Ahmadi’s had been guarding Suparman’s house after he was detained by local police on suspicion he had been proselytizing, which is forbidden under a 2008 ministerial decree restricting Ahmadiyah’s actvities.
The video shows police attempting to persuade the Ahmadi to leave the house, with one plain-clothed officer filmed warning the group that a mob was headed for the village.
The mob subsequently stormed the village. There were no police barricades erected to prevent clashes.
“Police get out. Burn these Ahmadiyah people!” one man shouted.
The mob immediately attacked the house with rocks and the people inside were forced to flee.
A JAI official who shot the video said members of the mob wore green ribbons to differentiate friends from foes. “It was clear that they were prepared for an attack,” said the man, who spoke on the condition he not be named amid fears for his safety.
The footage also shows the mob swarming around two lifeless bodies covered in mud. The Ahmadiyah man said the pair were chased to a nearby rice field where they were killed with bamboo and stone strikes to their heads.
The crowd then dragged the bodies along the road. Others were filmed attacking the corpses.
The three people who were killed were identified as Roni, 30, Mulyadi, 30, and Tarno, 25. Five other Ahmadiyah members were severely wounded in the incident, including 45 year-old Deden Sujana, whose right arm was nearly severed by a machete.
opyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/horrific...ahmadiyah/421214
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/horrific...ahmadiyah/421214
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