Army officer detained for assaulting activist

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Aceh military authorities have detained an army officer for questioning after he allegedly assaulted an anticorruption activist accused of stealing relief aid from the air force base in Banda Aceh.

"As soon as we (the TNI) were informed that one of our officers had assaulted the activist, we ordered the provost to arrest him and put him into Aceh Military Police detention.

"The investigation against him will proceed," Col. Yani Basuki, spokesman for the Indonesian Military (TNI)'s Aceh disaster management task force, told The Jakarta Post by phone on Friday.

But he quickly added that Captain Suaib had yet to be named a suspect.

The move by the TNI came after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his regrets on Thursday over the attack on Farid Faqih, the director of Government Watch (GOWA), a non- governmental organization that had previously vociferously criticized the government's poor coordination of relief aid in Aceh.

According to Yani, Suaib had been assigned to monitor the movement of all military supplies and relief aid arriving in Banda Aceh.

Farid is alleged to have been caught red-handed taking away various relief items, such as medical equipment, medicines, cigarettes, and kitchen utensils, donated by the wives of military officers stationed at the Banda Aceh air force base. Before handing the activist over to the local police, the army captain allegedly assaulted Farid, who sustained a black eye, bruising and swelling to his face.

Farid denied the charge of theft, saying that he was moving the goods to a warehouse outside Banda Aceh to prevent them from being soaked by the rain. He also said that he was assaulted by more than one soldier.

But in an interview aired by Metro TV, the commander of the TNI's Aceh disaster management task force, Maj. Gen. Bambang Darmono, said that Suaib was the "sole perpetrator."

Meanwhile, United Nations officers in Aceh said Farid was a partner in the world body's relief operation in the province.

Bo Asplund, the United Nations representative in Indonesia, was quoted by AP on Friday as saying that he believed that Farid had been wrongly accused and would be released soon.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who also chairs the National Disaster Management and Refugee Coordination Board (Bakornas PBP), said that the assault on Farid was the result of a misunderstanding and had nothing to do with poor coordination on the ground.

"So much aid has been flooding into to Aceh. It would be very easy to take it just like that. They are supposed to get permits. This is not about coordination. In fact, if there was no coordination, Aceh would be even more messed up. But it's not," he said.

Meanwhile, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Friday that Farid would be transferred to police headquarters in Jakarta for further questioning on the grounds that the law enforcement institutions in devastated Aceh had yet to return to normal.