TNI arrests 20 flyboys over police attack<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post,
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
The National Military Police commander Maj. Gen. Sulaiman A.B.
\nsaid that they had arrested 20 Air Force personnel allegedly
\ninvolved in the fatal attack on the Makassar police station in
\nEast Jakarta late on Tuesday, all of whom could face sanctions
\nand legal charges.<\/p>\n
\"Currently, there are some 20 Air Force soldiers in detention,
\nall of whom have been declared suspects in the attack,\" Sulaiman
\ntold reporters on the sidelines of the commemoration of the Army
\nStrategic Reserves Command's (Kostrad) 42nd anniversary on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
\"And because they killed a policeman in the attack, they will
\nface legal charges for murder. The other attackers will also be
\nlegally processed,\" he said.<\/p>\n
An armed mob of about 60 soldiers from the Air Force Equipment
\nRepair Unit besieged the station at about 11:30 p.m on Tuesday,
\nkilling a policeman on duty, First Pvt. Brig. Salmon Panjaitan
\nand severely damaging the station.<\/p>\n
These soldiers' actions are also against the military code of
\nethics and all decisions regarding these soldiers would be left
\nto the Air Force Chief of Staff (Marshall Chappy Hakim). \"But we
\nplan to discharge them,\" Sulaiman added.<\/p>\n
He explained that the incident took place after the police
\narrested a soldier, for public drunkenness and disorderly
\nconduct, and detained him at the station house. When arrested, he
\nwas given a choice of detention or being reported to his
\ncommanding officer. He chose to be detained.<\/p>\n
But the soldier -- whom Sulaiman refused to name -- apparently
\nobjected to being thrown in jail. Soon after being released, he
\nrounded up his military friends and they attacked the police
\nstation.<\/p>\n
Sulaiman's statement differs from an earlier press report that
\nthe assault occurred after the police confiscated a motorcycle
\nbelonging to a motorcycle taxi driver.<\/p>\n
The taxi driver complained to his relative, an Air Force
\nmember assigned to the Halim Perdanakusuma airbase, that he saw a
\npoliceman driving his motorcycle outside the police post. The Air
\nForce member then asked his fellow soldiers to attack the police
\npost, which they did.<\/p>\n
The East Jakarta attack is yet another in a series of
\ndisturbing Military (TNI)-Police conflagrations since they were
\nofficially separated in 1999. One of the largest and deadliest
\ntook place in Binjai, North Sumatra in late 2002 where over 100
\nArmy soldiers attacked two police stations in an apparent drug
\ndispute. At least 8 police officers were murdered, dozens of
\nconvicts were released and 1.5 tons of hashish, which is still
\nmissing, was taken from the station.<\/p>\n
Another fatal incident recently occurred in Madiun, East Java,
\nwhere a number of Army soldiers attacked a police station
\napparently following a quarrel between a TNI soldier and a
\npoliceman at a gas station.<\/p>\n
Several of the wayward troops involved in those incidents were
\nhanded minor sanctions or discharged from the force.<\/p>",
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