Financial troubles suspected in suicide

JAKARTA (JP): An owner of public buses killed himself with a .22 caliber gun on Jl. Kemang Timur, South Jakarta, early on Tuesday, relatives and employees said, with family financial problems the suspected cause.

Junaedi, 35, shot himself at his mother's house, his uncle Yulimar said at the morgue of Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital.

Yulimar said Junaedi owned nine Kopaja minibuses, plying the Manggarai to Blok M route, with 11 drivers. All the drivers were in Kemang where the buses were usually stationed when the incident occurred.

"The men heard a gunshot from the house. They immediately went inside and found Junaedi lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to his forehead," Yulimar said.

Junaedi was taken to Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta but doctors said the bullet exploded upon impact and the wound was inoperable. He died about two hours later at 2:30 a.m., Yulimar said.

"When the tragedy happened, his wife and four-year-old son were in his house in the Pasar Minggu area," Yulimar said, adding that he personally did not know why Junaedi killed himself.

RSCM's forensic expert Zulhasmar Syamsu said the gunshot wound appeared to have been self-inflicted because the bullet could not have been fired from a distance.

Kopaja's secretary Anton confirmed that Junaedi was one of the owners of buses operated by the organization of bus cooperatives unit.

A Kopaja official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said there were rumors Junaedi was experiencing financial problems which might have caused him to commit suicide.

City police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis told reporters at his office that the reason for Junaedi's suicide was still unclear.

"We don't know why he took his own life and where he got the pen gun," he said, referring to the .22 caliber gun.(06/nvn)