Maluku Police collect weapons
Maluku Police collect weapons
Oktavianus Pinontoan, The Jakarta Post, Ambon
Hundreds of assembled guns, sharp weapons and ammunition were
collected by the police in strife-torn Ambon in recognition of
the Malino peace deal, which aims to eliminate violence in the
area, provincial police chief Brig. Gen. Soenarko D.A. said on
Friday.
People voluntarily surrendered their weapons to security
personnel on Thursday, including residents of three villages who
delivered a total of 125 guns and ammunition to the police Mobile
Brigade (Brimob) on Thursday.
The residents of Rutong, Leahari and Hutumuri villages in
Sirimau district of Ambon on Friday observed the surrendering of
weaponry at Maluku Police Headquarters.
Among the weaponry collected were 54 rifles, 24 handguns, 48
bazookas, 25 homemade bombs, 224 rounds of ammunition of various
calibers, 716 arrows, 16 bows, 16 swords and dozens of spears.
"No standard police or military weapons were among the
haul ... but some of the ammunition is standard military/police
issue," Soenarko said.
Soenarko further said local residents, such as those of Soya
village, had four times surrendered their weapons en mass to the
police. Similar gestures had been made at Pulau Ambon Police
station in Central Maluku.
Some of those who handed guns over to security forces were
members of the police and the military, Soenarko said. "But most
of them asked for anonymity," he added.
"In principle, we collect guns and ammunition from any
unauthorized parties," the officer stressed.
Asked whether the police would do house searches for guns in
April -- due to the fact that the deadline for surrendering
weapons, according to the Malino peace deal, is March 31 --
Soenarko said that the matter would further be discussed by
Maluku Governor Saleh Latuconsina as the civil emergency
administrator and Pattimura Military Commander Brig. Gen. Mustopo
as the security operational commander in Maluku.
The Malino peace deal, penned by the government and
representatives of all warring camps in Maluku in the remote
Malino town of South Sulawesi in mid-February, requires that all
unauthorized weaponry must be surrendered to the authorities.
In another development, Soenarko said that the police had
taken stern measures against two Brimob personnel who reportedly
raped a female economics student of Pattimura University at the
Natsepa beach resort in Suli of Salabutu district in the Ambon
islands on March 12.
The two Brimob personnel, Pvt. Wayan and Pvt. Pandia, have
been shipped back to their base at Brimob I regiment, pending
further administrative and legal sanctions.
"I personally recommended that the two men be discharged from
their unit because what they did tarnishes the image of the
Mobile Brigade Corps and the police in general," Soenarko said.