Trans woman burned to death in North Jakarta

Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman

The Jakarta Post

Jakarta   /   Tue, April 7, 2020   /   08:04 am

The North Jakarta Police have charged a group of men who allegedly burned a 42-year-old
transgender woman to death with aggravated assault.

A total of six suspects face charges under Article 170 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates that
individuals who are found to have collectively used lethal violence against a person face 12 years
in prison.

The police had apprehended three of the six suspects, identified only as AP, RT and AH, as of
Thursday afternoon. The violence purportedly took place in Cilincing after the suspects accused
Mira of stealing a truck driver’s phone and wallet. The truck driver had parked his vehicle near
Mira’s rented room.

North Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Budhi Herdi Susianto said the suspects hit her with a
wooden log before dousing gasoline all over her so that she would confess to the alleged theft.
They then proceeded to pull out a lighter with the intention of threatening her, he said.

“After AP poured gasoline all over her, PD threatened the victim by pulling out a lighter while
saying, ‘Watch out, I’m going to burn you, I’m going to burn you,” Budhi said as quoted on
Thursday as quoted by tempo.co.

He said fire from the lighter inadvertently set off the gasoline, burning the victim alive.

Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid conveyed his disappointment in the
authorities’ “lackluster” investigation of the murder, which he said only resulted in a relatively
light assault charge.

“We still maintain that what the suspects did was carry out a despicable murder. The police
should have conducted a more robust investigation, instead of taking the suspects at their word,”
Usman told the Post on Thursday.

He said the suspects obviously intended to “do more than just threaten” Mira, as they had gone
out of their way to procure gasoline beforehand.
Usman called on the police to step up their investigation before proceeding with the “premature”
assault charge.

Mira, who previously lived in Bekasi, West Java, before moving to North Jakarta, died at 12 p.m.
on Sunday after she was admitted to Koja General Regional Hospital in Koja district, North
Jakarta, on Saturday morning.

The legal advocacy team for Mira’s case – which comprises members of several rights groups –
condemned the violence that resulted in her death, calling it “a form of transphobia”.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the team called on the government to uphold the rights of
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals to prevent similar incidents from
taking place in the future.

The team also expressed support for the North Jakarta Police’s ongoing efforts to apprehend the
remaining suspects who are currently still at large.

2) Collect texts that are, in your opinion, discriminatory (e.g., towards women, the LGBT
community or cultural minorities). The texts do not necessarily have to be newspaper
articles. Analyze the texts according to the discriminatory discourse strategies
identified by Flowerdew, Li and Tran (2002). Try to expand and refine their analysis
scheme on the basis of your results.

1. Negative other presentation

 The North Jakarta Police have charged a group of men who allegedly burned a
42-year-old transgender woman to death with aggravated assault.
 The legal advocacy team for Mira’s case – which comprises members of several
rights groups – condemned the violence that resulted in her death, calling it “a
form of transphobia”.
Male-dominated perpetrators regard transgender presence as something that is disgusting
and inappropriate. So that they behave arbitrarily and perceive transgender as inferior to
them.
2. Blaming the victim
 The police had apprehended three of the six suspects, identified only as AP, RT
and AH, as of Thursday afternoon. The violence purportedly took place in
Cilincing after the suspects accused Mira of stealing a truck driver’s phone and
wallet. The truck driver had parked his vehicle near Mira’s rented room.
 It was stated that the victim was suspected of stealing his wallet and handphone from a
truck driver, so the victim was not yet certain. The perpetrators blaming the victim with
the assumption that they had stolen.

3. Scare tactic
 North Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Budhi Herdi Susianto said the suspects hit
her with a wooden log before dousing gasoline all over her so that she would
confess to the alleged theft. They then proceeded to pull out a lighter with the
intention of threatening her, he said.
The weakened physical condition of the victim is used by the perpetrators to force the
victim to admit the crime which at that time was not necessarily committed by the victim.
Regarding this minority group not wanting to admit their mistakes, the perpetrators
carried out their tactics to frighten victims by lighting fires.