Gun-totting civil servants caught

M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post/Ambon

Two civil servants here were caught red-handed carrying an automatic rifle and several other weapons. The pair were stopped as they were riding on a motorcycle in Passo subdistrict, Ambon Baguala Bay district, Ambon, on Thursday, a senior police officer said on Friday.

The two men, Agustinus Latureke, 53, and Paulus Naskay, 40, employees of the Maluku Plantations Agency, were arrested by a member of the Maluku Police's water and air service as they were traveling toward Ambon city.

They were found carrying an Australian-made automatic RMS Colt, two machetes, 20 rounds of 5.36 caliber ammunition and a magazine. They were taken to Maluku Police's water and air service base not far from the scene of the arrests.

When asked by The Jakarta Post, water and air service chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Lunik Widodo confirmed the arrests. He said that one of his men had arrested the two men in possession of dangerous weapons as they were passing through Passo on a motorbike.

Adj. Comr. Saimima, who was also riding a motorcycle, became suspicious of the two men on the motorbike in front of him, who were carrying a plastic sack whose shape indicated it contained a rifle.

Saimima immediately stopped them. After asking them to open the sack, the officer discovered that it contained a rifle and other weapons.

"The type of rifle they were in carrying is not used by the Indonesian Armed Forces nor the National Police," said Widodo.

He explained that the two suspects admitted that they were heading toward Ambon city, address of which was yet to be known. Both men are now being held by the water and air service and will later be handed over to the detectives division.

When asked about the origin of the weapons, Widodo said that this was not yet clear and that the two suspects were still being interrogated.

"They were caught red-handed in possession of dangerous weapons and they will be brought to book for that," he said.

Ambon was a scene of sectarian disturbances between 1999 and 2002 that killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands of others to flee the province for safety.

The security situation gradually returned to some semblance of normalcy after a peace pact was signed between the warring sides in 2002 in Malino, Central Sulawesi, but sporadic shootings and bombings still take place, prompting the security forces to conduct regular patrols and raids. People arresting for carrying weapons normally maintain they were doing so for self-defense.