Dorm occupants not known to locals

JAKARTA (JP): The occupants of the Iskandar Muda Aceh student dormitory were strangers to the neighborhood, said the neighborhood head and other locals on Friday.

Most of the dorm occupants did not talk to their neighbors and led a reclusive life inside the house, but they looked nice and religious, several residents said from the Guntur subdistrict of Setiabudi, where a powerful bomb blast killed two people and injured two others the day before.

The head of the neighborhood, Sri Sukarna, said none of the occupants were students. And while the police said there were 18 people living in the 10-room house, Sukarna said only five were registered as residents: Salahudin Ahmad, 34, M. Kasim Yusuf, 54, Rusli M. Juned, 40, Irwan, 28 and Taufik Abdullah, 31. They were all from Aceh, and were jobless.

"As far as I know, only Taufik, who was in charge of the dormitory, was once a student. But now he is active in music," she told The Jakarta Post.

She said that since Taufik was unemployed, she offered him a job as the secretary of the subdistrict's poverty alleviation program. He agreed but the program has not started yet.

"The dormitory was often empty in the morning when I passed by on my way to the market. So it was difficult for me to monitor the activities inside," she said, adding that the guests often came in the evening.

She said the dormitory also functioned as a shelter for visiting Acehnese who stayed in the city for several days. She said she had asked Taufik to register the guests.

"But despite my repeated warnings, Taufik never reported who came and stayed there," she said, adding that some guests at the dormitory would stare at her suspiciously.

However, she said, all its occupants and guests had good manners, did not make any trouble with the locals and were also religious.

"That's why I was shocked when I heard the bomb exploded there. I don't understand why Taufik let his colleagues take bombs into the dorm," she said.

Head of Guntur subdistrict Usman said the dormitory, which was built in 1950 on 380 square meters, had been used to house Acehnese students for the past 20 years.

He said he could not list the people who lived in the dormitory because the occupants continuously came and went from year to year.

A neighbor, Sahroni, 50 said it was difficult to know for sure who lived there since most of them did not like mixing with others.

"I saw many guests go in and leave the dormitory almost every night. But I did not know exactly what their activities were in there," he said.

Another neighbor Slamet, 42, said he and some other residents recently suspected that the dormitory was being used for drug trafficking.

"Up until the blast, we were still watching the occupants' activities but were unable to see any indications of drug dealing or drug abuse," he said.

Parwi, who sells chicken noodles 15 meters from the dorm, said the head of the community had parked his old Honda Civic sedan in the front yard of the house. He was fixing the car when the bomb exploded and was hospitalized for his injuries, Parwi said.

"Thank God, the blast did not damage other houses around the dormitory," he said.(01)