A massive barrage of tear gas munitions fired by Indonesian police at soccer fans prompted the fatal crush in Malang last weekend that left at least 130 people dead, a Washington Post investigation shows.
The firing of at least 40 munitions at the crowd within a 10-minute span, in violation of national protocols and international security guidelines for soccer matches, sent fans streaming for the exits. The munitions included tear gas, flash bangs and flares.
Many fans were either trampled to death or fatally crushed against walls and metal gates because some of the exits were closed, the investigation found. The Indonesian National Police did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The review based on an examination of more than 100 videos and photographs, interviews with 11 witnesses and analyses by crowd control experts and civil rights advocates reveals how the polices use of tear gas in response to several hundred fans entering the field caused a huge surge at the southern end of Kanjuruhan stadium, where survivors say the bulk of the deaths occurred. Several doors were locked, witnesses said, further fueling the panic. This was confirmed by the countrys president, who has ordered a safety review of stadiums in the country.
As of Thursday, officials said 131 people had died, including 40 children. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International Indonesia, say the toll in Indonesias Malang regency could be as high as 200.
The Indonesian government has called for an inquiry into the incident, which is among the deadliest crowd disasters ever recorded. Provincial police officials have said their use of tear gas was warranted because there was anarchy, but crowd control experts who reviewed a video reconstruction provided by The Post disagreed.
The chief of Malangs police department and nine other officers were dismissed Wednesday for their role in the disaster. Another 18 officers are also under investigation.
The police response violated the Football Association of Indonesias protocols, which state that all matches have to abide by security provisions laid out by FIFA, soccers global governing body. FIFA bars crowd control gas from being used inside stadiums and mandates that exit gates and emergency exits remain unobstructed at all times.
Videos provided exclusively to The Post show that police, shortly after the game ended, fired at least 40 nonlethal munitions at fans either on the field or in the stands. Much of the gas drifted toward seating sections, or tribunes, 11, 12 and 13.
Police standing in front of section 13 fired tear gas onto the field and upward into the stands, prompting thousands of spectators to evacuate their seats, videos show. Bottlenecks formed at the exits, which were only wide enough for one or two people to pass at a time, eyewitnesses said.
Clifford Stott, a professor at Keele University in Britain who studies the policing of sports fans, reviewed videos provided by The Post and said that what happened at Kanjuruhan was a direct result of police action combined with poor stadium management. Along with another crowd control expert and four civil rights advocates, he said the police use of tear gas was disproportionate.
If they were firing gas because of people on the field,why did they fire some gas into the stands? The stands would be were the law abiding people were