Mobs lynch four 'suspected ninjas' in East Java

SURABAYA (JP): Villagers in East Java have lynched four men who they suspected were involved in a wave of "ninja" killings, including three who were dragged out of their car, police and sources said on Tuesday.

The four men were killed in two separate attacks. One died in Gadungan village, Puncu subdistrict in Kediri regency, while the other three died in Brondong village in Lamongan.

They were all suspected to be among the mysterious killers of over 100 Moslem preachers and "black magic practitioners" over the past three months in the province.

Kediri Police chief Lt. Col. Edy Soehardjo said Gadungan villagers on night watch caught two unidentified men in the early hours of Tuesday.

Edy said the villagers mobbed the two men after they failed to produce identity cards. One died on his way to the hospital while the other is in a coma at the Pare hospital.

In Lamongan, regency police chief Lt. Col. Agus Pratikto said three men driving a car were halted at about 4:30 a.m. on Monday by residents patrolling the Brondong village.

The men told the villagers they were Madurese from Sampang, according to Agus.

The three men -- identified by AFP as 35-year-old driver Saudi, businessman Masriji, 37, and Samujar bin Alam, 42. They were on their way to their hometown on Madura island.

Rather than producing identity cards as the villagers demanded, the three victims challenged the night watch members to a fight, Agus said.

The three were later mobbed to death after the villagers found three traditional Madurese daggers in their car. Police, who were outnumbered, came a little too late, Agus said.

"I am really sorry for the masses who have become fiercer. It's a heart-wrenching incident," Agus said.

In Surabaya on Tuesday, National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Amien Rais again urged the security apparatus to work fast to resolve the widespread killings.

Amien said the sluggishness with which security forces were dealing with the problem had provoked unhealthy speculation.

"If we judge the magnitude, the number of killings and the (slow) acts of the apparatus themselves... it seems that this (the murder spree) is not a pure crime.

"There must be political motives behind the murders. For instance, they could be used to divert attention from the (ineffective) investigation into (former president) Soeharto's wealth," he said.

However, East Java Military Chief Maj. Gen. Djoko Subroto again denied his men had been slow in investigating the killings.

Speaking with local Moslem leaders in Jember on Monday night, Djoko admitted the military had found it difficult to obtain information on the masterminds of the killings.

He blamed the mob who had lynched suspected murderers before the police could interrogate them.

However, Djoko promised the Moslem clerics that the investigation would continue. "We won't shelve these cases. The dossiers on (some of the already arrested) perpetrators are almost finished and by the end of this month their cases will be tried in court," Djoko said.

So far, investigations show that the killings are purely criminal acts, he said.

He said that although the security apparatus had yet to find proof, the possibility of political motives behind the murders had not been dismissed.

The Moslem leaders complained that villagers' religious activities had been disrupted since the killings became rampant. So great and pervasive is their fear that residents have stopped going to the mosque for dusk prayers.

"This condition must be handled quickly, as we'll be entering the fasting month (in mid-December)," Zainun Nasir of the Al Jauhar traditional boarding school, one of the Moslem clerics, was quoted by Antara as saying.

Meanwhile, in Surabaya again, chairman of East Java's Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chapter Hasyim Muzadi called on East Javanese to beware of unidentified groups' campaigns to divide them.

One of the ways was by shifting the issue of the murders into an interreligious conflict, he charged without elaborating. (nur/aan)