1995 no easier on police than 1994
1995 no easier on police than 1994
By K. Basrie
JAKARTA (JP): This year was no easier than 1994 on the police, who had to deal with whole series of crimes and a backlog of unsolved crimes left over from as far back as 1993.
This year's crime story opened with a bizarre triple murder of two Indonesians and an Indian businessman in Los Angeles, the United States. This story made headlines here when Los Angeles and Jakarta police agreed the prime suspect was Harnoko Dewantono, alias Oki, a 30-year-old Indonesian who had been living in California before returning to Indonesia.
Oki was initially arrested at his family's house in Central Jakarta on Jan. 6, 1995 for passport forgery.
He is currently serving time at Cipinang penitentiary after having been found guilty by a court of law of counterfeiting a number of passports.
City police have promised to bring Oki to court on charges of murdering his younger brother, Eri Tri Harto Darmawan, 26, his former girl friend, Gina Sutan Aswar, 30, and his Indian business partner, Suresh Mirchandani, 45.
Police reports that the Indonesians were beaten to death and that the Indian was shot to death in 1991 and 1992.
Los Angeles police discovered the decaying corpses of the three victims in a storage locker on Aug. 10, 1993. It took them four months to discover the identities of the deceased, which subsequently led the police to believe that Oki may have killed them.
Whether Oki will ever stand trial for murder on Indonesia soil remains in doubt because the Los Angeles police, who seem determined to try Oki in the United States, hold the bulk of evidence.
No one knows where Oki will stand trial for murder, or when.
On March 6, the police were shaken by the brutal beating and death of Police First Lieutenant Budi Prasetyo Utomo, 29. He was attacked by eight street hoodlums on an entry ramp at the Blok M shopping center in South Jakarta.
Budi was beaten and then stabbed by one of the drunken thugs, while his companion, Capt. Arman Depari, was beaten, his face severely bruised.
Mario Taihutu, the thug who was believed to have stabbed Budi, was shot to death by the police for "resisting arrest".
A few days later, another suspect was found dead in jail. Police said he died of a serious disease.
The other suspects, found guilty in a court trial of attacking the officers, are now serving jail terms ranging from four years to five years.
The killing of Budi led to a massive operation against street hoodlums, who are known locally as preman or gali.
Hundreds of preman were netted and required to take a short military-like course, at which they could learn certain skills, such as automobile repair, in order to help them earn an honest living.
On July 14, Maj. Noenang Kohar became the second police officer killed on the streets this year.
Noenang, head of the drugs subdivision at city police headquarters, was stabbed to death by a teacher in East Jakarta after a heated quarrel. The teacher, Baskoni Wahab, was sentenced to fours in prison last Tuesday.
Jakarta and the surrounding areas of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi were then jolted by a gang rape and robbery. Eleven men robbed the home of Acan, a potato farmer, and raped his wife and two young daughters on July 24 in a small village in Bekasi, 30 kilometers south of here.
October inscribed two more tragedies on the pages of this year's crime story, with the killing of the wife of Rohadi, a school teacher, and three of their children at Bambu Apus in East Jakarta on Oct. 2 and the rape and killing of a young woman at a five-star hotel in Central Jakarta on Oct. 16.
The motive for the Oct. 2 massacre? The suspect says Rohadi's family had repeatedly destroyed the cassava plants he was growing on his plot of land adjacent to the family's home.
The rape and murder of the young Indonesian woman, identified as Wati, 26, at a hotel here on Oct. 16 also made headlines in several newspapers.
Only about six hours after the murder, the police arrested Charanjit Dadwal, a Malaysian businessman of Indian origin. The hotel management had reported the killing immediately.
The above were not the only killings taking place in Jakarta this year. There were several others, involving prostitutes and thugs in East, Central and South Jakarta, which did not receive much attention from the public.
And most recently, on Dec. 16, Jakartans were shaken out of their preoccupation with the coming holidays by the killing of a taxi driver in Setiabudi, South Jakarta.
The suspect, who hails from Lamongan, East Java, admitted to police that he was upset upon receiving news that his mother was ill. The cleaning service firm worker said he had no money to return to his hometown to see how she was doing.
Another killing, which made City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo shake with rage, was the shooting of a gambling den operator in Ciracas, East Jakarta, last Saturday. The alleged killer is a policemen who was reportedly upset when the victim refused to give him the money he asked for.
Remarkable steps
The continued problem of scarcity of personnel and funds didn't stop the Greater Jakarta Metropolitan Police from recording a series of monumental achievements in 1995.
Their astounding success in adopting new methods to solve and curb crimes deserves respect and praise.
In 1995, police detectives started using the most up to date scientific investigation methods.
Unlike in previous years, today's police focus their crime solving work on blood stains, fingerprints, ballistics and other forensic data.
The arrest of the suspects in the gang rape and robbery of Acan's family, and the killing of Rohadi's family and the recent alleged rape and killing of the young woman in a hotel by a Malaysian businessman are examples of the results of this kind of approach to solving crimes.
"Suspects' confessions are no longer a must as we develop the academic methods," Dibyo once said.
President Soeharto presented a rare award to the city police for their remarkable work in solving the gang rape and robbery case.
The establishment this year of a special team, locally called Unit Reaksi Cepat (URC) is as another step forward. The URC team members are the first officers to arrive at the scene of a crime. They are trained and required to arrive at the scene of a crime as soon as possible and to secure any evidence they can find.
Courses have also been given to junior detectives on how to handle the scene of a crime properly to help find and preserve key evidence.
The city police have also started to develop an integrated security area system, through which security guards and other civilians help monitor the crime situation.
A new badge, similar to those used by American police, is now being used by city detectives to identify themselves when on duty.
Most of the steps taken by the Jakarta police have been followed by regional police.
"We'll never stop working and developing things that we believe can help improve our service for the sake of the public," said City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo.
Unsolved cases
Even though they have solved several important cases quickly, the Jakarta police still have a heavy backlog of unsolved cases to keep them busy.
The officers say they are still investigating those cases, hoping for breakthroughs or new evidence.
"We never intend to close any of the cases," Dibyo said.
The problem is, he joked, the police are not required to report on any advances in their investigations to the press.
However, a reliable police source told The Jakarta Post recently that at least three of the unsolved cases had been closed.
These include the killing of 23-year-old servant Djasman in September, 1993, the mysterious death of a young businessman at the residence of actress Ria Irawan in January last year and the killing of the prominent former convict Sembiring, a noted figure in the city's debt collector circles, in August last year.
Dibyo has denied that any of the unsolved cases have been erased from the police work list due to a lack of evidence, or poor groundwork by the detectives who initially investigated the cases.
Other unsolved cases include the killing of a six-year-old girl, Levina Dwisy, whose body was found in Ancol, North Jakarta, one early morning in March last year. The police claimed to have clues, but the investigation has not yet been completed.
Investigations also continue into the whereabouts of the killer of six members of the Hutagalung in Bekasi in January last year. And efforts are still being made to determine the ring leader of the killing of entertainment businessman Nyo Beng Seng, who was brutally stabbed in April last year at his home in North Jakarta. Police are also still trying to shed some light on the mysterious death of Themanto, 19, a new recruit of the student regiment at the privately-owned Tarumanegara University, early this year in West Jakarta and the killing of a physician whose body was found in a bathroom at the Hero Green Garden supermarket in Kedoya, West Jakarta, on May 26 this year.
"We pledge to keep on hunting all the suspects to settle the debt that we owe," said National Police Chief Gen. Banurusman Astrosemitro.
Dibyo, who replaced Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto in late January this year, also pledged the same things.
Although the crimes occurred before Dibyo took office as the city police "boss", people hope his skill and discipline will help his subordinates to "pay the debts".
If he can do it, he might get the chance to be the next national police chief to replace Banurusman.
Police have also waged an unending battle against drugs and have vowed to bring in the masterminds of drug trafficking operations.
The circulation of the stimulant called Ecstasy among teenagers has caused major concern among the police and the public alike.
Although sporadic, anti-narcotics raids at discotheques and other entertainment centers, resulting in the confiscation of millions of stimulant and barbiturate pills and marijuana, seem to have restrained the drug business somewhat.
However, law enforcers, the city administration and government officials, as well as experts in law, have been upset by the lack of laws to prosecute Ecstasy users and dealers. Some people arrested for either use or sale of Ecstasy have been freed due to the absence of such laws.
People believe that people with powerful connections are behind the distribution of the contraband among youths and celebrities.
Discotheques and pubs in town are said to be places where drug transactions take place. However, police have raided such places only sporadically, usually only in the wake of some major drug scandal.
Although the official figures have yet to be released, it is estimated that the number of crimes recorded this year could reach no more than 25,000, or 1,000 fewer than last year.
This year's crime clock, a police term used to indicate the frequency of crimes,is similar to that of 1994, with one crime taking place every 20 minutes.
Window: The continued problem of scarcity of personnel and funds didn't stop the Greater Jakarta Metropolitan Police from recording a series of monumental achievements in 1995.