Polri is the national police of Indonesia. The photo was taken in early September 1999 near Viqueque, East Timor.
A few days later on the 7th of September I had the pleasure of attending a shooting incident against the UN HQ building in Baucau. I was in the building when a Militia member entered the building and cocked his weapon right in front of me. Afterwards the building was surrounded by Timorese Militia (Aitarak or MILISI) and Indonesian Police (POLRI) who proceeded to shoot into the building at waist level through the windows. A rather uncomfortable hour or so was spent lying on the floor watching bullets make tiny holes in the walls around me. One estimate was that 4000 rounds were fired.
This was rather intimidating and I suffered a complete loss of high frequency hearing as a result of the barrage and I remember thinking what on earth I was doing there. Ten days later I was among the first to return to East Timor and I am still wondering what was I thinking in continuing this line of work…?
I have since learned that the shooting was done by BRIMOB rather than POLRI.
From ETAN.ORG :
- Brigade Mobil (in English, Mobile Brigade) is the ‘anti-riot’ branch of the Indonesian National Police which deals with special operations. A paramilitary organization, its training and equipment is almost identical to the Indonesian army’s (TNI), and it conventionally operates under joint military command in areas such as Papua and, until 2005, Aceh. Like Kopassus, Brimob personnel have been implicated in serious human rights abuses and continue to operate with near total impunity……
Brimob was deployed in substantial numbers in East Timor. According to police documents, 2,497, or almost half, of the Police deployed in East Timor by August 1999 were from Brimob. Its officers committed most of the police human rights violations in East Timor in 1999.
7 September 1999: Brimob fired directly into the UNAMET compound in Baucau for nearly an hour with apparent attempt to kill or injures. However, there were no injuries.
