JAKARTA—Amnesty International says Indonesian police fatally shot dozens of petty criminals in a deliberate campaign of “unnecessary and excessive” force ahead of the Asian Games.
The rights group said Friday that 31 of the police killings it recorded from media reports between January and August were directly linked to street-crime crackdowns for the games being hosted in Jakarta and Palembang.
It said police shot dead 77 petty criminals across Indonesia during the same period, a large increase from 2017.
Police were criticized last month when they said they had killed 11 street thugs in Jakarta in under two weeks. They were among 52 suspected criminals shot in the capital for resisting arrest.
Amnesty official Usman Hamid said hosting an international sports event “must not come at the price of abandoning human rights” and called for all deaths to be promptly investigated.
“These shocking figures reveal a clear pattern of unnecessary and excessive use of force by the police, and a constant veil of impunity that taints public security institutions,” he said in a statement.
The spokesman for Indonesia’s national police didn’t return calls or text messages.
Indonesian police have also carried out a heavy-handed policy against suspected drug traffickers, fatally shooting dozens last year.
Some 12,000 athletes from 45 nations and territories are competing in the 18th games, which open Saturday.
Jakarta, meanwhile, has had less than the normal amount of time to prepare for the Games. It was selected four years ago after Vietnam, the original host, pulled out because of financial problems. There are sure to be problems as Indonesia tries to show it could hold even larger events.
But there’s also gratitude from the Olympic Council of Asia—which oversees sports in the region—for stepping in.
Jakarta is famous for some of the world’s worst traffic jams, with a river of swerving motorbikes trying to beat the congestion. Getting athletes to venues on time is sure to be challenging. Some schools along transportation routes have been closed, and the city is also using an odd-even license plate scheme to reduce traffic.
But no one is being asked to stay home. Just the opposite.
“We are asking that people come to see the Asian Games, but please come to see them using public transportation,” Herryanto said, calling this a chance to change habits and a possible “legacy” of the quadrennial event.
Security will be heavy. Organizers say 100,000 police and military will be on guard with another 100,000 in reserve.
Indonesia is certainly large enough to think of itself as an Olympic country. With 260 million people, it’s the world’s fourth-most populous nation after China, India and the United States. It’s comprised of about 13,500 islands—the government says 922 are permanently occupied—that stretch about 5,100 kilometers (3,200 miles), which is greater than the distance from east to west in the continental United States.
Despite its quirky qualities, the Asian Games are also a serious proving ground for powerful teams from China, Japan and South Korea, and a chance for smaller nations to win medals that are out of reach at the Olympics.
Forty-five nations are entered from Afghanistan, Bahrain and Bangladesh to Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen.
Singapore, one of the smallest nations, has one of the biggest names in swimmer Joseph Schooling, an Olympic gold medalist who defeated Michael Phelps in the 100 butterfly two years ago in Rio de Janeiro.
China has the largest delegation with 845 athletes. But it’s a young team. It includes only 214 who have been in previous Olympics or Asian Games, and only 19 Olympic gold medalists. The most famous is three-time Olympic gold-medal swimmer Sun Yang.
South Korea and Japan are not far behind.
South Korea has 807 athletes, a number that includes 38 North Korean athletes. The Koreas are entering several combined teams, following up on a combined team in women’s hockey at this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Japan has traveled with 768 athletes, which is more than double the size of the team it sent to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. That reflects the size of the Asian Games, and Japan’s push to win 30 gold medals in two years in Tokyo.