NU disappointed in police probe

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)