Govt considers sabotage as cause of train crash
JAKARTA (JP): Following rumors of railway tracks in Central Java being tampered with, Minister of Communications Agum Gumelar instructed on Friday an investigation into the possibility of sabotage being behind a train collision last Monday.
"We are investigating the possibility of sabotage being involved in Monday's train collision. If there are questions about the possibility, it is possible," Agum said as quoted by Antara after speaking at the launch of a free Internet service provider, Linknet.
A report, filed by an official at state railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) for the Central Java area, claims that an iron bar had been placed across a railway track in somewhere Central Java. The episode has led to speculation of similar incidents being the cause of train accidents.
The minister said he had just received the report and that the local police had arrested the suspects behind the ploy. He, however, did not mention the number of the suspects.
Later on Friday afternoon, Agum announced he had asked an independent team of the Committee for National Transportation Safety to investigate the latest train accident.
"The Ministry of Communications and House of Representatives (DPR) Commission IV on infrastructure and transportation affairs have agreed that the committee, which was established through Presidential Decree No. 105/1999, will conduct a thorough investigation into the accident," he said after attending a closed meeting with Commission IV members.
"We did not set a time limit for the team. But it is expected it will be able to reveal the truth behind the accident, although the preliminary report said it was caused by human error," he added.
He said no government officials were on the team, which will be led by transportation expert Prof. Utario Diran.
Agum officially apologized to all parties over Monday's head- on collision between two trains at Bumi Serpong Damai housing complex in Serpong. The accident claimed four lives and injured 37 passengers.
He said nobody, including the government, had suspected such an accident could happen.
To date the accident has been blamed on human error, together with signal transmission defects and serious damage to PT KAI's central traffic control (CTC) system in Manggarai, South Jakarta,
The damage at CTC occurred last Friday when lightning struck the CTC office.
Resign
Asked about the resignation of director general of land transportation Santo Budiono, Agum said he had reported the matter to President Abdurrahman Wahid.
The minister, however, declined to mention Santo's successor.
Speaking about PT KAI's president director Edie Haryoto's offer to resign, the minister said it would be decided at a company shareholders meeting whether to accept or reject his resignation.
"A month after the proposed resignation, the company should hold a shareholders meeting to decide on the matter," he said.
"If the company fails to set a meeting within a month, then the resignation is automatically accepted."
When asked about mounting pressure that he also resign from his ministerial post, Agum said: "I'm just the President's aide. It is, therefore, up to the President to decide. For me, it would be no problem at all." (jun/asa)