Foreign woman loses hand in vicious robbery
JAKARTA (JP): People tend to believe what is reported on television, but nobody could probably regret it more than 46-year-old Taiwanese national Yu Lai Ho.
Yu, who had postponed plans to visit to Jakarta since 1997 because of political instability within the capital, lost her left hand in a brutal attack in West Jakarta last Sunday.
"When they showed on TV that Indonesia had a new President and that Jakarta was safe, I said 'it's time to go there and get Uu (Yu's 30-year-old son) a bride'," Yu told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Yu's friend Meriam translated for the injured woman from her room at the Sumber Waras Hospital in West Jakarta.
"Instead, I lost my hand in a mad robbery. Please... get me my hand back. Do you think that if my left hand is found, doctors here will be able to attach it back to my wrist?"
As Yu told her story, she wept silently, all the while blowing at her bloody, bandaged left stump.
"I just keep on crying. Nighttime, daytime," Yu said, while her 38-year-old sister Yang Nie Hua, who had accompanied Yu to Jakarta, spoon-fed the patient soup.
Meriam said Yu was bitterly disappointed when she arrived in Jakarta on Oct. 1 only to find that Meriam's daughter, 27-year- old Fransisca, was already married.
"You see, Yu had liked Fransisca very much ever since I brought her on a trip to Taipei in 1995. But, she never told me that she wanted Fransisca for her son," Meriam told the Post.
Meriam said that before she migrated to Indonesia, she and Yu had been school friends in Taipei.
"Yu, who came here with her sister, was so upset. She didn't want to leave Jakarta. So I took her places to cheer her up. I took her to Taman Mini Indah in East Jakarta, to Ancol Dreamland in North Jakarta and other places," Meriam said.
"I told Yu so many times to stay with me. She rejected (the suggestion) and insisted on staying at Hotel Jayakarta in West Jakarta."
On Sunday night at 10 p.m., Meriam, Yu and Yang had just finished dining out at Mal Taman Anggrek in West Jakarta, but were having difficulties finding a taxi.
"So we settled for a bajaj (three-wheeled motorized vehicle), but began bickering a minute later that it was too late for us to be riding in a bajaj. So we were all in a very bad mood when we got out near the Indonusa Esa Unggul University campus," Meriam said.
"(We) separated... each of us was trying to hail any passing taxi."
Meriam said she and Yang did not see the alleged robbery take place.
"I only heard Yu screaming: 'Cuminga! Cuminga!' (Help! Help!). We ran to her. Screaming, she told us that one of two young teenagers had chopped of her left hand with a sickle. She was wearing a gold bangle and a 1.538-carat diamond ring on her left hand," Meriam said.
Yu said she had never considered that the level of crime was so high.
"I just hope I get my hand back. That's really all I want," said Yu, crying bitterly.
West Jakarta Police chief Lt. Col. Adjie Rustam Ramdja said three suspects had been arrested early Tuesday morning in connection with the robbery.
Adjie identified the three as Gali, 24, Taufik, alias Bule, 25, and Dedy, alias Doli, 24. He said the three men belonged to a gang of street thieves.
"Following the Sunday incident, we carried out a sweep of the area. It seems that early on Tuesday morning Taufik was waiting to rob another innocent victim on the same road. One of my police officers recognized Taufik as a longtime thief," Adjie said.
"Taufik gave us Gali's address in the Tanjung Duren area, West Jakarta. At Gali's house, we arrested Gali and Dedy, and confiscated the sickle that cut off Yu's hand.
"Unfortunately, despite an intense search in a 500-meter radius from the area where the incident happened, we could not find the hand." (ylt)