Metal bullets found in most victims of Friday's shooting

Metal bullets found in most victims of Friday's shooting

JAKARTA (JP): Fragments of metal bullets have been found
inside most of the bodies of the victims of the bloody Black
Friday shooting at the Semanggi cloverleaf here last week, a
senior forensic expert said on Thursday.

According to Budi Sampurna, head of the forensic department of
Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, these bullets had caused the
fatalities.

"The bullets that entered the bodies produced holes with a
diameter of five to six millimeters," Budi told The Jakarta Post.

He, however, refused to disclose anything further about his
findings, including the type of metal in the bullets.

"It's still under investigation," he argued.

According to Budi, all of the bullets found in victims' bodies
had been handed over to the city military police for further
investigation into the shooting.

The forensic finding contradicted statements from the police
and senior military officials who insisted that their men
assigned at the Semanggi cloverleaf last Friday the 13th were
only armed with blanks and rubber bullets.

But the officials promised to probe the shooting, which
caused the death of nine people, including seven university
students.

Another senior forensic expert of the same hospital, Mun'im
Idries, was of the opinion that the bullets that killed the
Semanggi victims were fired from rifles.

He based his opinion on the wounds of the victims and the
fragments as well.

"The bullets are indeed small in diameter but produced
fatalities, and there were no signs of close-range shootings
found on the bodies." he told the Post.

Mun'im said identifying the exact type of rifles used to shoot
the victims would now depend on the size of the cartridges found
at the scene of the incident.

"The bullets used during the Semanggi shooting were of the
high velocity type.

The bullet's velocity depends on the amount of gunpowder in
the cartridges. The longer the cartridges, the speedier the
bullet, he said.

Meanwhile, reliable sources from the military and the
hospital, who requested anonymity, confirmed that an almost
intact bullet, measuring 4.47 millimeters in diameter had been
extracted from the body of one of the victims.

"None of us in the military is armed with this kind of
bullet," the military said.

According to Mun'im, a bullet was not the only forensic
element necessary to determine the killers.

"Details of the diameter of the bullets alone could not
explain the case.

We must also take into account the degree of destruction over
the bodies, the size of cartridges found at the scene along with
the bullets found in the bodies to determine the type of the
weapons used during the incident," Mun'im explained.

Besides the nine victims at Semanggi, the city also witnessed
the deaths of four other people on that day during other clashes
in the capital.

The Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital identified the four victims,
members of the Pamswakarsa volunteer security units, as
Wahidinnur Nurlette, Mansur Ulu, Budi Marasabessy and Sulwan
Letaluhu. (ivy)