Army apologizes to police, Binjai returns to normal
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu apologized to the National Police for the Binjai incident which he said had badly tarnished the military's image, as the situation in the North Sumatran town gradually returned to normal.
Ryamizard expressed the apology in the presence of North Sumatra Provincial Police chief Insp. Gen. Ansyad Mbai and a number of senior police officers at the North Sumatra Police Headquarters in Tanjungmorawa, some 20 kilometers south of Medan, the capital of the province late on Monday.
Following a meeting with Insp. Gen. Dewa Astika, deputy police chief for operational affairs; Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief Lt. Gen. Bibit Waluyo; Army's Special Force (Kopassus) Commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto and National Military Police chief. Maj. Gen. Sulaiman A.B. in the city early on Tuesday, Ryamizard held a press conference in which he stressed that such an incident should not happen again.
"The clash is now over and, in the future, such an incident must not happen again, whether here or in Ambon, Kalimantan or other places across the country," he said.
Ryamizard did not apologize to the public even though two civilians were killed in the gunfight between the Langkat Police and the Army's airborne unit and Langkat residents' activities were disrupted on Sunday and Monday. A public apology was expected from the two institutions since both had misused guns bought from public funds in a drug trafficking case, while they are supposed to be provide security for the public.
The situation in Binjai was brought under control after both police and military personnel in the regency were ordered to lay down their arms and hand them over to their respective headquarters.
The local police resumed their services to the public despite the damage to their facilities, including office buildings, during the two-day clash. All schools resumed classes and most shops reopened. The 30-kilometer Binjai-Medan highway which was paralyzed for two days returned to normal.
At least eight people, including two civilians, were killed and five others seriously injured during the clash following the attack by the Army's local airborne unit on the police headquarters in Binjai on Saturday night. The attack was triggered by police refusal to release a drug trafficker under police detention.
In a meeting with more than 1,300 soldiers deployed in the Bukit Barisan Military Command overseeing security in North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Riau, Ryamizard asked them to learn from the incident that has badly damaged the Army's image.
He pledged to enforce the maximum penalty on all soldiers involved in the clash but rejected calls to dissolve the airborne battalion because such an action would not solve the problem.
"All those found guilty in the incident will be severely punished. They should be given the death penalty if current legislation permits," he said, referring to Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto's order on Monday that all soldiers involved in the incident must be dismissed from the military service and given the stiffest punishment possible and the airborne battalion should be dissolved.
Ryamizard, nevertheless, failed to mention the root cause of the incident and no preventive measures were taken even though it was the latest of a series of clashes between both sides over the last three years. Both sides have been involved in such clashes in the Central Kalimantan town of Sampit, Ambon, Papua, Palu, Central Sulawesi and Madiun, East Java. Neither was any action taken against the commanders of the police Mobile Brigade and of the airborne battalion even though both knew of the previous incidents.
Fatmawati, the wife of Rusli Manday, a civilian killed in the clash, called for a just punishment for the person who killed her husband.
"I want the person who shot dead my husband, to be punished as harshly as possible so that my husband's death was not in vain," she said after Rusli's funeral in Medan on Tuesday.
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar who also made a field inspection tour to Binjai, insisted that despite Ryamizard's apology, the incident must be processed in accordance with the law.
He said that besides a joint inquiry team, the police would also carry out their own investigation into the incident.
"We appreciate Ryamizard's move to make an apology to heal the police personnel's scars caused by the attack and to console them," he said at Polonia Airport before his departure to Jakarta.
He said the police would cooperate with the National Military Police to pursue the 61 detainees, who escaped the police's detention house when the police station was attacked.