Live grenade discovered in Medan

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

An active grenade was found on Wednesday by an employee of a state-owned oil palm plantation in Medan, North Sumatra.

Police secured the unexploded grenade, which they believed belonged to members of the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

The small hand-thrown bomb was discovered by Nirwana, the employee, in the Pasar I Helvetia area of Medan as she was on her way to work.

Nirwana said she saw a suspicious object lying on the ground when she was going to her office at around 10:30 a.m.

"I was surprised when I saw that it was a grenade. I then reported it to the nearby police station," she told The Jakarta Post.

Adj. Comr. Boni Sirait, deputy chief of the Medan police detectives, confirmed the finding of the hand-grenade, saying it was likely owned by GAM members from Medan Deli district.

He explained that the grenade may have been left behind by at least three Acehnese rebels that had been chased by police in the area a few months ago.

At the time, the police were involved in a gunfight with alleged separatist rebels blamed for stealing around Rp 500 million (US$58,823) from a fish-farm businessman in the town of Labuhan Deli, Boni said.

He said one of three alleged rebels was shot dead but two others managed to escape arrest during the incident and fled into the oil palm plantation where the grenade was found.

Boni said his officers were investigating the case. --JP