City police remain to have meny unsolved cases

JAKARTA (JP): The city police turns 50 on today, and it prefers to remain silent about a lot of things.

There have been questions in the past which were either left unanswered or answered for the sake of the public's hungry demand for information.

The brutal shootings of student protesters in several areas of the capital in the past two years by the security authorities, including members of the Jakarta Police, are still fresh in the public mind.

Some of the offenders have been sentenced and others fired, but most people are not satisfied with the punishments, saying that they want the commanders in charge, not low-ranking personnel, to stand in front of a military tribunal.

City police could do nothing to stop the amount of vigilantism carried out by members of the public, who engaged in such illegal acts as they had lost respect for the police.

This year alone, scores of suspected criminals have been killed and burned by mobs at crime scenes.

High ranking officers of the Jakarta Police usually lamented such failures by using the well-worn-tune of lack of personnel and facilities and the fact that their personnel were underpaid.

But the public simply concluded that the city police, like their colleagues across the country, only bowed to power, not to the people. It seemed like the police intended to hastily find scapegoats or bury the cases when the crimes had something to do with those in power or their relatives.

In 1997, for example, the National Police Forensic Laboratory (Puslabfor) concluded that three fires -- respectively at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) building, the Ministry of Finance complex and the Bank Indonesia (BI) building -- were arson cases and linked to one another.

The first fire gutted a room on the second floor of Bappenas building on Jl. Taman Surapati, Central Jakarta, on June 14, 1997.

Ginandjar

"The room was next to the working office of Pak Ginandjar Kartasasmita (then Bappenas chairman). No casualties were reported," a senior Puslabfor officer who requested anonymity said in a recent interview.

National police investigators were "still looking into the matter," when a second fire destroyed sections of a 12-story building at the Ministry of Finance complex on Jl. Lapangan Banteng in Central Jakarta, on Nov. 24, 1997.

The fire, which started on the sixth floor and spread to the seventh and eight floors, never touched the fourth floor.

"The arsonist or arsonists were aiming for the fourth floor, since all the ministry's data were stored there," the officer said.

The most devastating fire of that year, was the one on Dec. 8 at the central bank (BI) building which claimed 15 lives.

Puslabfor deputy chief Col. Dudon Setia Putra said last month that the fire was purposely ignited and was "pure sabotage."

"Damaging evidence was found on the 18th floor of the building... Thinner had been used to light the fire," Dudon said.

"From the evidence, we can deduce that the fire was a deliberate attempt to destroy important documents, which were burned on the four floors of the building."

Another Puslabfor officer who also requested anonymity, added that a recent reinvestigation into the case, which began in late June this year, revealed that the documents contained data relating to 16 banks liquidated in August 1997. All such documents were destroyed in the fire.

"There were also data, regarding corruption by at least two BI directors then," he said, but did not elaborate.

No official statement about the cause of the three fires was ever released by city police.

The Jakarta Police also stunned the public recently following reports that the main defendant in the April 1999 bomb blast at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque -- Surya Setiawan, alias Wawan -- whi has been sentenced to 38 months in jail, on Oct. 18 was still detained at the city police headquarters.

Wawan, 22, was found guilty by the Central Jakarta District Court of carrying and detonating the bomb, along with other suspects -- Jamhuri Litanahu, Nurly, Suradi, Semi Sedubun, Ati and Uci.

He was placed under strict security.

Dietje

Another notorious case whose court verdict many people still do not believe is the 1986 killing of 34-year-old pregnant model Dietje Budiasih Budimulyono.

Lt. Col. Bambang Wahyu of Puslabfor's development division said last month that the declared killer Mohammad Siradjuddin, alias Pak De, was a retired Army officer and a trained shooter who had earlier been posted at the Army Artillery unit.

The convicted paranormal Pak De said in August last year that he was an innocent man, who had "confessed" to the killing, due to the mental pressure of seeing his two sons undergo continued physical torture.

Bambang said the Puslabfor investigation, which went on for six months from the time of death on Sept. 8, 1986, included the seizure of nearly 1,000 revolvers of .22 millimeter caliber across the nation, one of which was suspected to be the murder weapon.

Repeated examinations narrowed it down to revolver No. 93, made by Harrison and Richardson Arms. Co of Worcester, Massachusetts, the United States.

The revolver belonged to a security guard of the now defunct Bank Bapindo.

A Puslabfor source said if Pak De claimed that he was not the killer, then the people should ask for a reinvestigation into the Bapindo security officer.

"The police never properly investigated this man. If people want to find out who this officer rented his gun to, then there needs to be a push for a reinvestigation into the murder," he said.

"The key lies in the person who rented the revolver from the security guard."

Nyo Beng Seng

Another puzzle concerns the freeing of businessman Hasan, alias Eng San, in 1997 after the Jakarta High Court overturned the guilty verdict against him in the murder of rival businessman Nyo Beng Seng.

Eng San was convicted in the North Jakarta District Court in June 1997 for inducing others to kill Nyo Beng Seng in April 1994 at Nyo's second wife's mansion in Pluit, North Jakarta.

He was found guilty of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to 17 years in jail.

The defense argued the evidence against their client was circumstantial and based on hearsay.

None of the prosecution's witnesses said they saw Eng San discuss a murder plot.

The high court also rejected the controversial written testimony of Kiki Arianto, who is wanted by the police in connection with the murder.

Three people are currently in jail for the murder. (ylt)