Soccer hooliganism reared its extremely ugly head in Indonesia once again yesterday with the death of one Persija Jakarta supporter at the hands of several Persib Bandung supporters — videos of which have gone viral online.
One video, taken right outside the Gelora Bandung Lautan Api (GBLA) stadium before the match up between traditional rivals Persija and Persib, shows a sea of Persib supporters — small children included — surrounding one Persija supporter, identified as 23-year-old Haringga Sirla in the media. The disturbing clip shows Haringga being savagely beaten to a bloody pulp by Persib supporters as they chant songs telling him to “go home”.
We are not sharing the video here because of its extremely disturbing and graphic nature.
Haringga reportedly died at the location and Bandung Police say they have arrested 10 of his suspected assailants so far. Five of them have already confessed to assaulting Haringga though no charges against them have been announced.
According to the police, Haringga became a target of the suspects simply because they found out he was from Jakarta.
“At the time the victim was walking towards the stadium. Several Bobotoh (Persib fans) found out he was from Jakarta and then they beat him to death,” Bandung Police Spokesman M Yoris Maulana told Kompas yesterday.
West Java Governor and self-professed Persib fan took to Instagram to condemn the heinous attack on Haringga, calling the attackers “biadab” (savages) and closing his message with, “for me it’s better that the soccer league be abolished if it claims lives.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoElQE_Hbyh/?hl=en&taken-by=ridwankamil
Similarly, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan posted a blacked out image on Instagram. In the caption, he urged Persija fans to remain calm and to let the authorities bring justice to those responsible for Haringga’s death.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoEwUz4n0Yq/?utm_source=ig_embed
Since 2012, seven people from both sides of the Persija-Persib rivalry have been killed in violent attacks by rival supporters.
Correction: In an earlier version of this article, we wrote that we saw one video in which the attackers chanted an Islamic prayer while beating the victim. The police have since determined that the audio of the chant was laid onto the video and authorities are looking for the people responsible.
