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.