Army apologizes to police, Binjai returns to normal

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.