NU disappointed in police probe

SURABAYA (JP): Leaders of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), some of whose members have been victims in the mysterious killing spree which has hit eleven East Java regencies, have said they are disappointed with the police and will from now on take part in interrogation of suspects.

Around 2,000 members and elders of the country's largest Islamic organization gathered at Langitan boarding school in Tuban on Wednesday. They discussed the murder spree and the terror spread by unknown groups of masked people who originally targeted those accused of sorcery but later turned on Islamic teachers.

The chief of the Brawijaya Regional Military Command, Maj. Gen. Djoko Subroto, and East Java Police chief Maj. Gen. M. Dayat also attended the meeting.

During the gathering, NU's Banyuwangi chapter said it believed 148 people have now been targeted in the mysterious attacks. Of the 148, 101 people died, 33 escaped, 7 sustained severe injuries while seven others were only lightly injured.

A total of 96 people were members and elders of Nahdlatul Ulama, including Koranic teachers, it was reported.

"We call on the authorities to be more transparent in their work and to act quickly to reveal who the perpetrators are," said the chairman of NU's East Java chapter, Hasyim Muzadi. "This is no longer the case of a witch hunt, but a campaign of terror against Moslems. Organized terror against Moslems."

It was also revealed at the meeting that 36 people have died in the neighboring regency of Jember.

The participants raised concern in the meeting over how police sometimes released suspects from custody without giving the public an account of the matter. They complained that police had announced they had made more than 100 arrests but disclosed no more details.

They said that because they could no longer trust the authorities, they would take it upon themselves to also interrogate the suspects, although it was not stated how they intended to make the necessary arrangements for this.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, an interim investigation report released by the United Development Party (PPP) concluded the ongoing murder spree was engineered and organized by professionals.

PPP secretary-general Tosari Widjaya said in a media conference on Wednesday that the PPP fact-finding team had found evidence of a third party's involvement in the murders in Banyuwangi and Jember.

"Local people were terrorized or agitated by mysterious phone callers to get involved in the murder spree against the alleged practitioners of black magic," he said.

He added the tactics used by the agitators revealed they could not have been ordinary members of the public.

"While the police were about to arrest a group of people who were beating and torturing an alleged practitioner of black magic, another group attacked a police station to demand the release of a suspect being held in custody," he said.

Tosari hinted the agitators were not local people, but outsiders.

"Witnesses saw them carrying Citizens' Band (CB) radios. None of them spoke local dialects," he said.

Separately here on Wednesday, Munir, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) criticized local security authorities for allowing the killings to spread from Banyuwangi into other regions.

Police have so far identified 11 regencies in East Java in which killings have taken place, but similar murders have also taken place in Demak in Central Java and Serang in West Java.

"The evacuation of alleged black magic practitioners will only mean that people seek them out in their new places of abode," he said.

Munir also said there was evidence of the presence of "hoodlums" from Jakarta in areas where the murders took place.

In Jakarta, Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Gen. (ret) Feisal Tanjung confirmed the government has found indications that the killings are linked to "communist vengeance", but stated that further investigation was being undertaken by a team sent by the Armed Forces (ABRI) headquarters earlier this week.

"Hopefully, we will shortly come up with a clearer explanation of the matter," Feisal told journalists after being sworn in as a new member of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on Wednesday.

He dismissed reports that the state apparatus has been slow to responding to the slaughter, saying: "It could just be that the reports came to you late."

Feisal also dismissed reports that the government had engineered the killings, but promised the ABRI investigators team would check to see if there was any "political agenda" behind the killings. (nur/43/aan/imn)