Indonesian authorities will investigate a stampede at a soccer match that left 125 people dead and hundreds more injured in Malang, East Java province, on October 1. A government official said that 32 minors were among those killed.
The investigative team includes government officials, experts, academics, and representatives of the country’s soccer organization, who will all seek to understand what caused one of the most deadly stadium disasters in history. The death toll was the largest at a soccer match since 1964, when 328 were killed in Lima, Peru as the nation hosted Argentina.
Mahfud “MD” Mahmodin, the coordinating minister of Indonesia’s security affairs, said at a news conference Monday that the investigative team will take two to three weeks to reach its conclusions.
“They have been asked… in the next coming days to reveal the culprits that were involved in the crime,” Mahfud told a news conference.
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has ordered the country’s soccer federation to suspend all top-flight matches until the investigation is complete.
Mahfud said he wants the investigative team to look into whether actions taken by police amount to a criminal offense as questions mount over their use of tear gas amid commotion at the stadium.
Nine police have already been removed from their positions and the local police chief transferred, police spokesperson Dedi Prasetyo said, adding that a total of 28 officers would be investigated.
Mahfud also asked the commander of Indonesia’s armed forces to investigate after videos appeared to show members of the military “conducting excessive actions and beyond their authority,” he said.
The victims’ families will receive 50 million rupiahs (around $3,300) in compensation, and treatment for the hundreds more injured would be free, Mahfud added.
The events leading to the deadly disaster began after the home team, Arema Football Club, lost 3-2 to Persebaya Surabaya.
The stadium was beyond capacity, with 42,000 tickets sold despite the arena being designed to hold only 38,000. Authorities added that tickets had not been sold to Persebaya fans over security concerns.
Fans rushed onto the field after the game, and police fired tear gas because the crowds had grown “anarchic,” a senior police official said.
The tear gas sent thousands of panicked people fleeing for an exit gate, leading to a crush in which many were trampled and died because they could not breathe, police said.
FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, stipulates no “crowd control gas” should be used at matches. FIFA called the incident “a tragedy beyond comprehension” and has asked Indonesian football authorities for a full report.
Indonesian human rights groups have said police are to blame for the tragedy for using tear gas, which burns and stings people, in a packed stadium with limited exits.
Choirul Anam, a commissioner for Indonesian rights body Komnas HAM, said at a press conference that if tear gas had not been fired, “maybe there wouldn’t have been chaos.”
The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation condemned the crowd-control measures taken by security personnel.
“We suspect the use of excessive force through the deployment of tear gas and the handling of masses that wasn’t in line with procedures were the causes of the high death toll,” the foundation said in a statement.
Mourners gathered outside the stadium on Monday as the disaster shook the East Java community. The Koran Tempo newspaper ran a black front page on Monday, with the words “Our Football Tragedy” printed in red along with a list of the dead.
Some scattered flowers over an Arema club shirt while others prayed quietly or wept.
“My family and I didn’t think it would turn out like this,” said Endah Wahyuni, the older sister of two boys, Ahmad Cahyo, 15, and Muhammad Farel, 14, who died after being caught up in the chaos at what was their first time attending a live match.
“They loved soccer, but never watched Arema live at Kanjuruhan stadium,” she said.