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)