Pickpockets beat conductor to death

Pickpockets beat conductor to death

JAKARTA (JP): A Metromini bus conductor was beaten to death by
a group, thought to be pickpockets, after he refused to allow
them to board the public vehicle near the Tebet train station in
South Jakarta on Sunday.

The incident took place after the victim, identified as
Suyadi, was involved in a dispute with the group of about 10
people behind the minibus, which plied the Kampung Melayu-
Manggarai route.

The group had just gotten off the train from Bogor, said
Suradji, a colleague of the victim.

"Suddenly I heard one of the 10 people shout, 'What did you
say?' to Suyadi," Suradji told The Jakarta Post on Sunday at the
Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta.

Some of the group had already entered the bus, while the
others argued with the conductor, Suradji said.

One of the group who had boarded the bus took a half-meter
length of wood from the bus, approached the quarreling group and
hit the conductor in the back of the head with the wood.

The attackers, believed to be pickpockets who usually operate
in the nearby Kampung Melayu market, fled on another passing
Metromini bus heading in the Jatinegara direction, he said.

Suradji said the group were well-known to bus conductors and
bus drivers.

"They always go everywhere in a group," he said, adding that
they usually refused to pay bus fares.

No one in the area attempted to stop the beating or prevent
the attackers from escaping, Suradji said, explaining that people
were frightened by the size of the group.

Suradji said he went to his injured colleague several minutes
after the incident.

"I immediately rushed Suyadi to hospital by taxi," he said.

Suyadi died an hour after being admitted to the hospital's
intensive care unit.

"A doctor told us he could have been saved if he had have had
immediate surgery," he said.

However, the hospital would not operate on Suyadi because the
victim's colleagues could not afford the medical costs.

"We lack money," he said, adding that the victim's family
could not be reached by phone at that critical time.

Suyadi is survived by two children, who live on Jl. Asem
Baris, Tebet, in South Jakarta. (01)