Monday October 3, 2022
At least 125 people have been killed and dozens more injured
in a riot and a stampede at an Indonesian football stadium.
The tragedy on Saturday night in the eastern city of Malang
was one of the world’s deadliest sporting stadium disasters.
Police in East Java province said thousands of fans of Arema
FC stormed the pitch at Kanjuruhan Stadium after their team lost 3-2 to
Persebaya Surabaya. Officers tried to control the “riots” by firing tear gas,
triggering a stampede as panicked fans rushed to an exit gate.
Some suffocated in the chaos while others were trampled to
death. At least 34 people, including two police officers, died at the stadium.
The death toll was revised down to 125, according to East
Java Vice Governor Emil Dardak, who said that some names were recorded twice.
Earlier officials had put the figure as high as 174.
A hospital director told local television that one of the
victims was five years old.
Video footage from local news channels showed fans streaming
onto the pitch in the Kanjurujan Stadium in Malang after Arema FC lost to
Persebaya Surabaya. Scuffles can be seen, with what appeared to be tear gas in
the air. Images also showed people who appeared to have lost consciousness
being carried away by other fans.
The stadium holds 42,000 people and authorities said it was
a sell-out. Police said about 3,000 people had stormed the pitch. Vehicles
outside the stadium were also torched, including at least five police cars and
trucks.
Survivors described panicking spectators in a packed crowd
as tear gas rained down on them.
“Officers fired tear gas, and automatically people were
rushing to come out, pushing each other and it caused many victims,” a
43-year-old spectator told the AFP news agency. “Nothing was happening, there
was no riot. I don’t know what the issue was, they suddenly fired tear gas.
That’s what shocked me, didn’t they think about kids, women?”
League suspended
President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation into the
tragedy, a safety review into all football matches and directed the country’s
football association to suspend all matches until “security improvements” were
completed.
“I deeply regret this tragedy and I hope this football
tragedy will be the last in our country,” Widodo said.
Meanwhile, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the the
football world was “in a state of shock”.
“All our thoughts and
prayers are with the victims, those who have been injured, together with the
people of the Republic of Indonesia,” he added.
Fan violence is an enduring problem in Indonesia, with a
strong rivalry between clubs sometimes leading to violence among supporters.
Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya are longtime rivals and the latter’s fans were
not allowed to buy tickets for Saturday’s game due to fears of violence.
Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and
security affairs, Mahfud MD, said organisers had ignored authorities’
recommendation to hold the match in the afternoon instead of the evening. He
also said the government had recommended only 38,000 tickets be printed, but
there was instead a sell-out crowd of 42,000. “The government has made
improvements to the implementation of football matches… and will continue to
improve. But this sport, which is a favourite of the wider community, often
provokes supporters to express emotions suddenly,” he said in an Instagram
post.
World soccer’s governing body FIFA specifies in its safety
regulations that no firearms or “crowd control gas” should be carried or used
by stewards or police. East Java police did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on whether they were aware of such regulations.
Referring to the FIFA rules, Amnesty International
criticised the use of tear gas in the stadium and urged authorities to “conduct
a swift, thorough, and independent investigation” and “ensure that those who are found to have
committed violations are tried in open court and do not merely receive internal
or administrative sanctions”.
“This loss of life cannot go unanswered,” said Usman Hamid,
the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia.
The Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) said it would
send its own investigation team to Malang to establish the cause of the crush.
It also banned Arema FC from hosting home games for the rest of the season.
“We’re sorry and
apologise to families of the victims and all parties over the incident,” PSSI
Chairman Mochamad Iriawan said.
The tragedy comes as Indonesia is scheduled to host the FIFA
U-20 World Cup in May and June next year. They are also one of three countries
bidding to stage next year’s Asian Cup, the continent’s equivalent of the
Euros, after China pulled out as host.
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from the
Indonesian capital, Jakarta, said Saturday’s disaster was “historic”.
“Violence and riots are a common occurrence at football
matches in Indonesia, but we have never seen something like this before,” she
said.
“This is a historic tragedy, not only for football in
Indonesia but football internationally. This is one of the biggest tragedies
the sport has seen, in terms of fan violence, in terms of deaths of fans at a
match,” she added.
Other stadium disasters include a 1964 crush at a
Peru-Argentina Olympic qualifier at Lima’s National Stadium that killed some
320 people, and the 2012 Port Said stadium tragedy in Egypt where 74 people
died in clashes.
In 1989, some 96 Liverpool supporters were crushed to death
in the United Kingdom, when an overcrowded and fenced-in enclosure collapsed at
the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES