Aceh politician's murder unsolved

JAKARTA: House Speaker Akbar Tandjung on Tuesday criticized the police for having failed to resolve the January, 2000 murder of an Acehnese politician in Medan, North Sumatra.

"The police have been working for two years, and nothing has come out," Akbar told reporters after a meeting with National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar.

Legislator Tengku Nashiruddin Daud of the United Development Party (PPP) was murdered by four men. Da'i said three of the suspects had fled to Malaysia, and one had died.

Nashiruddin was deputy chairman of the House's special committee investigating past human rights abuses in the restive province of Aceh. He was found dead at his hotel in Medan.

Akbar met Da'i to get a first-hand account of the case, which he believed would be under scrutiny in the International Parliament Union (IPU) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in January.

Da'i said that he had sought cooperation with Malaysian police to help locate the suspects. "We will try our best to make the results public soon," Da'i said. -- JP