Mysterious assassins kill Bondowoso PDI-P executive

Mysterious assassins kill Bondowoso PDI-P executive

ID Nugroho, Bondowoso

Suwarjo, 60, an executive with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) Bondowoso branch, and his wife and son were found murdered in the family home on Wednesday.

The police are looking into whether the murders were political motivated or were a case of revenge. The police have ruled out robbery as being behind the murders, as no valuables were stolen.

Suwarjo is the third politician to have been murdered in East Java province over the past eight months.

Wednesday's murders were discovered at 6:30 a.m. by Juleha, a neighbor of the victim, who arrived to purchase kerosene at the shop on the premises of the victim's house on Jl. Diponegoro, Bondowoso regency.

Juleha noticed blood on the floor of the house and immediately alerted other neighbors, who rushed into the house and found the three corpses.

Wiwik, 60, the wife of the PDI-P politician, and Dodi, 28, Suwarjo's son, were found dead on the living room floor. Suwarjo was found tied to a chair in the back of the house. Suwarjo was the former deputy chairman of the PDI-P Bondowoso branch.

Bondowoso Police chief of detectives Comr. Daniel said it appeared the three victims had been repeatedly hit with blunt objects as their bodies were full of bruises, including their heads.

"We also found wounds on Suwarjo body and head, indicating he was stabbed or hit by sharp weapons," said Daniel.

After securing the crime scene, the police searched the surrounding area for evidence. Daniel said the police found a blood-stained T-shirt hanging on a neighbor's clothesline.

The police questioned Papang and Nono, two of Suwarjo's sons and several neighbors. The remains of the victims are laid out at a relative's house on Jl. Zaenal Arifin and will be buried on Thursday at Ki Ronggo Cemetery.

The secretary of the PDI-P Bondowoso branch, Irwan Rachmad, said the incident was shocking. "The deceased was a good person and had no enemies," said Irwan.

Sr. Comr. Winarso, the chief of Besuki Police, under which jurisdiction Bondowoso regency falls, said that several windows and doors in the house were damaged. He also said the motive was not robbery as Suwarjo's family said no valuables had been stolen from the house.

Separately, East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said the police suspected two people where involved in the murders.

"Preliminary investigation into the two people is under way," said Firman, as quoted by Antara news agency.

The last murder, which was thought to be politically motivated, also happened here in December last year, when Asmuni, the advisory board chairman of the National Awakening Party's (PKB) Lumajang branch in East Java, was murdered by six people wearing masks and armed with machetes who broke into his house.

Asmuni was the second PKB party member to be murdered in December after Rafiq, a PKB activist in Jember regency.