Jakarta police urge end to mob justice

Police say they are battling a rising crime wave

Police in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, have appealed to residents to stop taking the law into their own hands following a series of mob lynchings of suspected criminals.

Theft is criminal. However, burning people alive is uncivilised

Major Alex Mandalika, Jakarta Police

In the latest incident on Saturday, a crowd beat and burned to death five men who, they believed, had robbed passengers on a bus.

Witnesseses say the men were trapped when passengers from whom they were demanding money screamed to passers-by for help.

The alleged thieves were then dragged from the bus, beaten and were doused in petrol.

According to the local Jakarta Post one man attempted to flee the mob with his clothes in flames, but was trapped and thrown back onto the burning bodies of the four other men.

All five men were dead when the police arrived at the scene.

Falling confidence

Jakarta: Overcrowded home to some 11 million residents

Last month four men, also alleged to have been thieves, were burned to death in Bekasi, east of Jakarta.

Correspondents say that mob justice has been increasing, in response to weakening confidence in the police and military.

With Indonesia continuing to reel from months of political and economic turmoil city residents have complained that police are doing little to halt growing number of petty thefts.

Many have accused the police of being inefficient and more interested in lining their pockets from corrupt business deals than in doing their job.

Police officials say they are going their best in the face of a rising crime wave and that mob justice is not the answer.

"Theft is criminal. However, burning people alive is uncivilised," said Jakarta police spokesman Major Alex Mandalika.