Man who lost family in Indonesia stampede vows never to watch football again
‘I will never watch (football matches) anymore’
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Your support makes all the difference.A 36-year-old Indonesian man has vowed never to watch football again after his family died in the Arema FC stadium stampede over the weekend.
Andi Hariyanto’s wife, two teenage daughters and one cousin lost their lives in the disaster which began with crowd violence on Saturday before police fired tear gas at spectators, triggering a deadly panic and stampede.
Now the heartbroken and grief-stricken man says he will never watch the sport again.
Reuters spoke with Mr Hariyanto who, along with his family members and two-year-old son Gean Putra Hariyanto, was at the Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang, East Java watching the local team Arema FC play Persebaya Surabaya.
During the stampede, Mr Hariyanto lost touch with his wife and daughters and cousin. He was quoted as saying: “They should never have fired (tear gas) into the stands because all the chaos was down on the field.”
On Monday, Indonesian authorities fired the local police chief and banned nine football officials in the country for life. The police say they are still investigating what led to one of the world’s worst sports stadium disasters.
Mr Hariyato said: “I will never watch (football matches) anymore. Now I can only think of my son and I have no time for anything else. Now what is important is how to get food tomorrow.”
East Java’s deputy governor, Emil Dardak, earlier this week had revised the death toll to 125 casualties after earlier telling local media there were 174 deaths. The official toll is now more than 130.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, called for an urgent probe into the incident and offered condolences to the families of those who died.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino said that “the football world is in a state of shock following the tragic incidents that have taken place in Indonesia at the end of the match between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya at the Kanjuruhan Stadium”.
He added: “This is a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension. I extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims who lost their lives following this tragic incident.”
Mr Hariyanto told the news agency that on Saturday after the stampede he kept “searching through all the dead bodies, then I found my daughters Natasya and Naila. I was struggling to find their mother.”
His daughters — who he said were adopted — were 16 and 13 years old. His 34-year-old wife was injured and later succumbed to her injuries in the hospital. His two-year-old son survived.
Thirty-three of the victims from Saturday were children between 4 and 17, officials have said.
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