City police remain to have meny unsolved cases

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)