Army locates hideouts of suspected murderer

Army locates hideouts of suspected murderer

JAKARTA (JP): A Jakarta military command spokesman, Lt. Col.
DJ Nachrowi, said yesterday that his office had located several
hideouts used by the alleged killer of Army officer Chief Sgt.
Ahmat Tohir.

Nachrowi said that his men were just waiting for the right
time to capture the man who had apparently moved from one place
to another to avoid arrest.

He said the suspect, identified as Hasan Usman, would be
better off if he surrendered.

"We know everything about him and the whereabouts of his
hideouts too. It'll be better for him to surrender than to have
lots of officers hunting him down."

Jakarta Military Command has identified all those present at
the fatal stabbing of Tohir, he said.

Tohir was stabbed to death Tuesday while helping two groups of
laborers, the Warga Jaya Group and the so-called Kiara Youth at
Pondok Gede market, solve an ongoing dispute.

Nachrowi said Tohir was allegedly stabbed by Hasan, a member
of Kiara Youth, because the latter was opposed to the solution
offered by a mediator from the Bekasi military district.

"Hasan is registered as the head of Pondok Gede's branch of
Kiara Youth. He was quite active in community activities. He
often came to the functions representing the organization as one
of its chiefs."

The central board of Kiara Youth Generation, however, denied
yesterday that Hasan was the head or a member of the
organization.

The chairman of the organization's advisory council, Masiga
Bugis, said yesterday that the organization was in no way
involved in the killing and it did not acknowledge the Kiara
Youth laborers group or its activities in the Pondok Gede market.

"They are not our members even though they claim to be members
of Kiara Youth," he said. "The organization no longer exists as
of last week's national meeting."

"The only acknowledged organization is the Kiara Youth
Generation which in fact has no program on mobilizing members to
work at the market."

He accused the Kiara Youth laborers of being involved in a
movement which tried to disrupt the national meeting and rejected
its results, including the new regulations and the restructuring
of the organization.

Masiga also lambasted Hasan's assault on Tohir, saying that it
was a disgrace and an unforgivable act.

"We can't tolerate his conduct. Even if he could prove that he
was one of our members, we wouldn't help him," he said.

A police source said that at least eight witnesses had been
questioned in a preliminary investigation into the death of
Tohir.

He said a police officer had also been questioned at the
Bekasi Military Police office in relation to Tohir's death.

"First Sgt. Sitompul has been questioned since Tuesday. He was
allegedly in the same car as the suspect when the suspect stopped
a truckload of laborers and then stabbed Tohir to death," he
said.

Sitompul lives in a house near Jl. Jati Makmur, Bekasi, where
the incident took place.

"Sitompul's connection to the suspect and his role in the
incident is still not clear," he said.

Hoodlums

The Generation's advisory council chairman, Masiga, called on
related authorities to take stern action against hoodlums who
caused social disturbances.

Laborers of the so-called Kiara Youth group at Pondok Gede
market should be punished because their conduct was no different
to hoodlums, he said.

He admitted that Kiara Youth, which in fact was the embryo of
the new Kiara Youth Generation, was an organization which was
often associated with thuggery because many of its members were
hoodlums.

"But now, we want to change that bad image by creating a
totally new organization through the Generation," he said.

In a related development, the chief of Jakarta Military
Command, Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoedin, yesterday called on
organizations to do some self-analysis, especially regarding the
conduct of its members.

Registered members of an organization, or people who claim to
be members, might discredit the name of that organization by
their personal conduct, he said.

"Don't undervalue a certain organization just because of its
members' conduct." (05/cst)