Extortion

From Kompas

I was driving on Jl. Swadharma in Petukangan Utara, West Jakarta on Oct. 8, 1995, at about 5:30 p.m. At the Jl. Ciledug Raya intersection, my car was suddenly blocked by another car. Then a big man got out of that car and told me that I had just hit someone.

Surprised, I asked if I really had. He forced his way into my car and asked me to be responsible for the accident. Between half-belief and fear, I was forced to go back to the place, where a man had been waiting and his hand seemed to be injured.

The injured man and another guy who helped him joined us in the car. Now there were four of us.

I suggested that they should go to the hospital. But the injured man, who confessed that he was a policeman in plain clothes, asked me to take him to the Police Hospital in Kramatjati. But later he just wanted me to take him to the clinic in Swadharma. When I was about to accompany the man to enter the clinic, the big man stopped me and asked me to settle the matter amicably. Not long afterwards, the injured man got out of the clinic and said the doctor could not treat him believing that the bone was broken. The man wished to have his hand and the broken bone massaged in Cimande, West Java. It would take about four to six months to recover and the cost was Rp 2.4 million to be shared by both of us.

Being panicky, I agreed to his deal, and I had to take out my money at the Jakarta Design Center, in Slipi. But I got only Rp 500,000. To fulfill their demand they took my car radio. The man then asked to be dropped in front of the Center, while the two other men were still in the car. Finally they got out at Jl. Palmerah, only 100 meters away from the Slipi intersection, robbing me of my wrist watch and the car speaker. Is this a new style of extortion?

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