GP Ansor chief dies in car accident

JAKARTA (JP): Muhammad Iqbal Assegaff, chairman of the six- million-strong Ansor Youth Movement (GP Ansor), died from injuries suffered in a car accident on the Cawang-Tanjung Priok toll road on Saturday.

He was 41.

His wife, Siti Rachmah, 34, sustained a broken right collarbone during the afternoon accident.

She was rushed to nearby Islamic Hospital and admitted with her husband, according to nurses.

"She is resting now. She is totally conscious and fine," one of the nurses at the hospital told The Jakarta Post on Saturday night.

GP Ansor is a youth branch of the 30-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama Muslim organization.

According to a North Jakarta traffic policeman, the accident at Km 12,600 on the toll road apparently occurred when Iqbal lost control of his BMW 320 sedan.

"The BMW sedan was speeding and the driver seemed to have lost control when the accident happened," the official, who asked for anonymity, told the Post.

The car careened over road dividers, spun into the opposite lane and hit an oncoming truck, he added.

Iqbal's car was a 1996 model bearing license plate B 63 RI, he said.

The official said the accident was still under investigation.

Iqbal was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the accident at the hospital in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta.

His body underwent an autopsy at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital before it was transported to his residence in the Siaga Baru housing complex in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

Ade, Iqbal's sister, said the couple had five children -- Dicky, Dina, Sarah, Dinda and Arfah.

"I hope all of the children will be fine," Ade told the Post. "I guess the shock will hit them later."

Several important officials, including Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Agung Leksono, expressed their condolences to Iqbal's family.

Iqbal, appointed GP Ansor chairman for the 1995 to 2000 period, was born in North Maluku on Oct. 12, 1957.

A 1986 graduate of the School of Veterinarian Science at Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Iqbal continually stressed the pressing need of the government to help the country's small and medium-scale enterprises.

He headed the Indonesian Muslim University Student Association from 1988 to 1991. (ylt)