20 servicemen to face tribunal of Binjai tragedy

20 servicemen to face tribunal of Binjai tragedy

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

The Military Prosecutor's Office in Medan, North Sumatra, said it
had received the case files of 20 servicemen who are suspects in
the Sept. 28 and Sept. 29 tragedy in Binjai, which killed 11
people.

Col. Mangasa Manurung, the head of the Military Prosecutor's
Office, said he had received the case files on Oct. 21 and the
office would process them immediately so that they would be sent
to the military tribunal.

Mangasa said the suspects were divided into two groups, with
ten suspects charged with the attack on the Langkat Police
station on Sept. 28 and ten charged with the attack on the police
station and the Mobile Brigade headquarters on Sept. 29, in which
11 people, including seven policemen and three civilians, were
killed.

"All the suspects are members of the Army's Airborne 100/PS
unit in Binjai, some 30 kilometers north of the city," he said,
adding that the cases would be brought before the tribunal as
soon as his office examined the suspects' case files.

The first attack was sparked after the Binjai Police refused
to release a suspected drug trafficker, who was allegedly
protected by certain members of the airborne unit. Two policemen
and two servicemen were seriously injured in the attack.

The situation quickly got out of control when hundreds of
members from the airborne unit launched a second attack on the
police station and the National Police's Mobile Brigade
headquarters in the city the following day, in which 11 lives
were lost.

The two incidents angered top police and army officials,
forcing Army Chief Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu to transfer six Army
officers out of the Bukit Barisan Military Command.
Many have speculated that the replacement of those in the top
posts in the Bukit Barisan Military Command and the North Sumatra
Provincial Police could have been related to the incidents.

Responding to the investigation into the Binjai incidents,
Maj. Gen. Idris Gassing, the outgoing chief of the Bukit Barisan
Military Command overseeing North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Riau,
said the investigative team would continue their probe in case it
found more suspects in the two attacks.

"The team is not ruling out that there may be additional
suspects. The team will be transparent in conducting the
investigation and will be open to the possibility of there being
other suspects," he said.

Asked to comment on his transfer, Gassing said he was not
disappointed with his six-month post in the military command and
that being replaced was common in the military organization.

"I'm ready to be assigned anywhere in the country and this
transfer has nothing to do with the Binjai incident," he said,
adding that Insp. Gen. Ansyad Mbay, the chief of the provincial
police, was also replaced.