Lovelorn soldier, student arrested for Depok blast

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Police announced late Sunday that they had arrested a lovelorn army soldier and student on Saturday in connection with the recent bomb blast in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta.

Speaking at a hastily called news conference here, Jakarta Police Detective chief Sr. Comr. Adang Rochyana identified the suspects as First Sgt. Ucok Erianto, 27, and Irwan bin Erman, 27.

He said the motive behind the blast was pure criminal and driven by a personal dispute between the suspect and the family living in the house where the bomb exploded.

Preliminary questioning revealed that Ucok was angered by the family of his girlfriend as his marriage proposal was turned down by the family.

Ucok, a soldier at Trikora Military Command in Irian Jaya, was assigned to Ambon, Maluku, where he met Hesti, a nurse in Ambon.

They were lovers for some time until they decided to get married. Hesti's family, however, refused to bless the couple.

Police said in a fit of anger, Ucok came to Jakarta and planted the explosive in front of the house of Hesti's brother Achmad on Jl. Mangga Raya in Depok.

"So it really has nothing to do with other previous blasts as the motive behind this blast was the rejection of love," Adang told the media briefing.

Adang said Ucok admitted that he took the explosives, containing powerful trinitrotoluene (TNT), from his military unit and assembled the bomb while he was in Ambon.

The blast in Depok occurred only one hour after a powerful explosion shattered a dormitory of Acehnese students in the Guntur area in South Jakarta. That blast claimed three lives.

There were no fatalities in the Depok blast.

Adang said the police received a tip on Ucok from several pedicab drivers who said two strangers were asking about the location of Achmad's house.

The police then asked Hesti to arrange a meeting with Ucok at the Depok railway station. Ucok agreed but was then arrested on arrival before his meeting with Hesti.

"Ucok then led us to Irwan who we arrested in Ismail Marzuki Park in Central Jakarta only a few hours after Ucok's arrest," Adang said.

He said, however, that the police were still investigating the connection between Ucok and Irwan, a student at the Indonesian Art Institute in Yogyakarta, and also the latter's role in the blast. (ylt)