Officers badly hurt in drunken brawl over game

JAKARTA (JP): Two Army officers and a marine officer of the Indonesian Military (TNI) suffered injuries in a drunken brawl over bets concerning who would win in a billiard game.

The incident occurred at the Kramatjati Indah billiard center on Jl. Raya Bogor, East Jakarta, early on Wednesday morning, a city police spokesman said.

Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis said the officers, identified as First. Lt. Robbi and First. Lt. Mardiono of the Army, and Second. Lt. Suparman of the marines, broke and threw bottles at each other, and ended up injuring one another, at about 12:30 a.m.

"They were drunk, were playing billiards and had placed bets on who would win. One of them, I don't know which one, felt the other was cheating," Zainuri told reporters.

"So they started fighting and threw bottles at each other. The bottles hits the heads of the Army officers and they suffered cuts. A shard of glass tore through the face of the marine officer. Eight people are being questioned at the city military command (Kodam) as witnesses."

Zainuri added that the case, which was initially handled by officers of the Kramatjati Police subprecinct, was handed over to the city police, and later transferred to the city military command.

Military officers have been increasingly involved in criminal acts lately.

An Army private was recently apprehended while attempting to steal a motorcycle from the basement parking lot of The Jakarta Post's editorial office in Palmerah, Central Jakarta.

The suspect, Pvt. Beni Arianto, 22, of the Army's Air Maintenance and Supply Battalion, was set on by scores of angry local residents, who attempted to burn him alive.

Beni was saved from the wrath of the residents by Post staff and security guards, including those from nearby offices. Local police officers eventually arrived on the scene and transported the suspect to the Tanah Abang Police station.

A police source said that over the past several months city police had arrested several Army members for various crimes, mostly drug offenses and auto thefts.

Earlier, I Gusti Ketut Putra, an adjutant of national military police chief Maj. Gen. Djasrie Marin, shot dead traffic police officer, First Sgt. Fikri Zakaria. The shooting occurred outside the Seribu Satu restaurant in North Jakarta, over a drug bust which Gusti was allegedly trying to cover up and Fikri was allegedly blackmailing Gusti to expose.

An Army captain was arrested on Dec. 22 last year with at least three other people for allegedly possessing 13 ecstasy pills and a number of grams of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) in an apartment in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. The 41-year-old captain was only identified by the initials SH.

Late last year, Col. Saleh Saaf of the National Police information unit said the military police were still handling the cases of at least 28 Army and police officers suspected of either drug dealing, planting marijuana or illegally selling liquor over the past three years.

"In some cases the dossiers have not even been completed. In others, the cases are still being tried at military tribunals. It's really going slow," Saleh said.

"New cases are piling up. The more open we are about this, the more the military police will have to work harder on these cases and cut down on bureaucracy." (ylt)