Indonesian police have launched an investigation after a human rights activist critical of the country’s military interference in the government was seriously injured in an acid attack, officials said on Monday.
Andrie Yunus, a deputy coordinator with the rights group Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, also known as KontraS, was attacked on Thursday by two unidentified assailants in Yogyakarta city, officials said.
He suffered burns to 24 per cent of his face and arms from acid thrown by two unidentified assailants on a motorcycle on 12 March, KontraS and police said. Police are now looking for four people wanted in the attack, they said.
Jakarta police official, Iman Imanuddin, said the CCTV recording of the attack showed four suspects on two scooters following the human rights activist before throwing acid on him.
He added that forensic tests are being conducted on a motorcycle helmet and a container that allegedly contained the acid used in the attack.
Indonesian minister for law and human rights, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said the incident “constitutes an attack on democracy itself” and perpetrators would be brought to justice.
"Human rights activists work for the interests of the people and the state, as the protection of human rights and democracy is a constitutional mandate," he said.
The attack has been called a violation of president Prabowo Subianto’s commitment to human rights by a parliamentary commission overseeing human rights in the country.
Indonesia is seeing a rise in concern over the erosion of democratic values in the world's third-largest democracy, where the military's involvement in civilian areas and state-run businesses has increased significantly under Mr Prabowo's administration, who is a former retired general.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, in an X post on Saturday described the attack as "horrific" and called for accountability for what was a "cowardly act of violence".
More than 170 civil society groups in Indonesia, including Amnesty International, alleged the attack intended to kill Mr Yunus, calling it intimidation of rights defenders.
