Pindad says not at fault for confiscated bullets

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)