Pindad says not at fault for confiscated bullets

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned ammunitions producer PT Pindad cannot be held responsible for the thousands of Pindad-made bullets confiscated recently from 14 dealers of illegal guns, its director said on Wednesday.

Budi Santoso said half of the 5,300 bullets confiscated last week by the South Jakarta Police were produced between 1992 and 1994.

"We will, however, take no responsibility for any ammunition which was already delivered to institutions which initially ordered the items," Budi said after a closed-door meeting with South Jakarta Police chief Col. Nono Suprijono.

Budi identified the institutions with the right to order the bullets as the Ministry of Defense, the Army Headquarters and the National Police Headquarters.

"We heard that the ammunition seized in the arrests was about to be sold to members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). The latter would have been used in guns to kill our Army officers.

"We cannot be held responsible for this, just as the Astra auto company cannot be held responsible if a passenger is in an accident in a brand-new car."

He said security at the Pindad factory in the West Java capital of Bandung was so tight that a single bullet could not be taken from the site without being monitored.

"We have all sorts of technology to take care of internal security. Once it gets out, it's not our responsibility ... the leak of the bullets for GAM officers was definitely not by us."

The 22 revolvers and rifles confiscated during the arrests, Budi said, were made in Czechoslovakia and the United States.

Separately, a South Jakarta Police source said that one of the 14 suspects, Rohmat, who was handed over to city police for further questioning on Saturday, confessed to selling 40 grenades to GAM officers.

The source said that Rohmat claimed to have purchased the grenades for Rp 1.25 million each from Andi Kholid, another one of the suspects arrested.

"Andi said he obtained the grenades from Iskandar. The latter claimed that he received the goods from Andi Sunarto. Sunarto said he got them from Sugandi, who later told us that he got the grenades from an Army officer, identified as Byk, who's still at large," the officer explained.

Rohmat, a resident of Pulanga village in Gandapura, North Aceh, confessed to having bought 2,200 AK-47s and 500 M-16 bullets, as well as other bullets, all worth Rp 50 million (US$6,700), from a man he identified as Nasir from Pondok Gede, East Jakarta.

Rohmat said the purchase was based on orders from another GAM official, identified as Zulkifli. Rohmat was arrested at the home of Haris Bustami in the Sunggal Mas housing complex in Medan, North Sumatra, about two weeks ago.

Police seized two grenades, a military cap and Indonesian Military (TNI) shoes, found in three plastic bags.

"Rohmat said that during the raid at the house, Haris and another GAM official managed to get away," South Jakarta Police chief of detectives Maj. Rycko Amelza Daniel said.

In the police report, Rohmat said that the plastic bags and the grenades were at the house since Feb. 29, the day Rohmat arrived at Polonia Airport in Medan from Jakarta on a Mandala Airlines flight.

Rohmat said Zulkifli had entrusted him to make the transaction, and that he was only required to show a receipt of payment to Zulkifli at Pulawi village in North Aceh.

Rohmat also said he arrived in Jakarta a week after the Idul Fitri holiday, and stayed for a week at Nasir's house. (ylt)