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It’s been a year since one of football’s worst ever disasters.
A few hundreds people took part in a vigil outside the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, Indonesia, including the victims’ families demanding justice, to commemorate the 135 supporters who were killed after the derby between local rivals Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya. Others took to the streets to peacefully protest, holding up posters with the faces of lost loved ones.
After the game, Arema FC fans rushed onto the pitch, a common occurrence after games in Indonesia. Portuguese center back Sergio Silva, then at Arema FC, told Portuguese sports newspaper “A Bola” that the fans looked like they wanted to “show support rather than attack.”
Police tried to push them back with heavy tear gas and batons, resulting in bottlenecks and mass panic. More than 400 people were left injured and the list of deaths included children, one as young as three.
Police responsible, families seek justice
According to Indonesia’s human rights commision, police’s indiscriminate use of tear gas was the main cause for the disaster, with the organization’s chief calling for “legal responsibility.” In football’s governing body FIFA’s stadium regulations, the use of firearms or crowd control gas is prohibited.
Two Indonesian officials and three police officers stood trial and were found guilty, with the jail terms ranging between one and two years and a half.
Despite that, many of the victims’ family members feel the measures taken by the country’s government, police and courts didn’t go far enough.
Devi Athok lost his two teenage daughters in the disaster. According to the Indonesian man, the police didn’t tell the truth about the reasons for its measures, arguing it was because of fights between fans.
“This is a public lie. We are being fooled,” he told AP.
“If you ask if I have sincerely accepted what happened, yes, I sincerely do. They are dead, they won’t come back. But under the law, I seek justice against the killer of my two daughters.”
Supporters voice discontent
Many supporters, too, feel not enough has been done in the year since the disaster.In an open letter, former Arema FC fan collective Arek Malang said that a “fair trial” has still not taken place.
“The high-ranking police officers who gave the orders to shoot tear gas remain free,” the group wrote on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, adding that no association or league official has stood trial either.
The group believes Arema FC, too, should also be held to account. The group, formerly known as Aremania due to their support of the club, “removed all forms of support” due to its handling of the disaster’s aftermath.
“Police violence towards football fans must end,” the group’s open letter concludes.
The group has also called for other fan and ultra groups from around the world to raise awareness about the disaster and show solidarity with the victims. Many have answered their calls, including two ultra groups from Germany — Stuttgart’s Commando Cannstatt and Carl Zeiss Jena’s Horda Azzuro.
The situation in Germany
Football games in Germany are statistically safe — only 1,127 injuries were recorded out of almost 19 million stadium visits in 18/19, the last season ahead of the pandemic — but research published by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in May, showed that almost a quarter of those asked said they were subjected to police violence in the context of football games.
As a result of their experiences, many of Germany’s supporters established legal aid collectives to provide assistance to anyone needing it upon facing the law, and making official complaints in cases of an exaggerated use of force by police.
In Indonesia, such football collectives do not appear to be present, although the country’s Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) condemned the police’s use of force.
The Kanjuruhan Stadium is set to be torn down, but for those in mourning a year on from the tragedy justice remains elusive.
Edited by Jonathan Harding
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