Police end search for drowned students
Police end search for drowned students
BOGOR (JP): The search for Jakarta maritime students drowned
in Cisadane River here following a Friday brawl with local
students ended on Tuesday.
The team of divers from the police Mobile Brigade and military
infantry battalion were withdrawn from the site.
On Tuesday afternoon, local residents were seen diving on
their own initiative to find possible new corpses.
The number of students still missing remained unclear as none
of their surviving classmates or school authorities had revealed
missing students or contacted parents for clarification.
Friday's brawl between some 100 visiting students from at
least three of Jakarta's maritime high schools (SPM Adhitama, SPM
Baruna and SPM Karyadharma) and students from a local technical
high school has so far claimed the lives of 14 students.
The corpses of the victims, all from the Jakarta maritime
schools, were found a day later floating on the river.
Bogor's PMI Indonesian Red Cross hospital announced on Tuesday
that one of the 14 teenage victims is yet to be identified.
The others were identified as Chaerul Anwar, Moch. Makasau,
Sobirin, Triono, Nurmansyah, Ade Hidayat, Rizal (from SPM
Adhitama), Marzuki, Iwan Firmansyah, Abdulrahman Fauzi, Haerudin,
Abdul Halim (from SPM Baruna) and Agus Rusmana from SPM
Karyadharma.
Agus Pranoto, who was earlier named a victim, was no longer on
the hospital's list.
A hospital staff member said the body which was first said to
be Agus' was disclaimed by his family.
"His family said one of Agus' toe is longer than that of the
body we have."
Agus, a student from SPM Adhitama, was named by Bogor Police
chief Lt. Col. Edmond Ilyas, as one of the three suspected
provocateurs for the incident.
It is believed the three circulated rumors last week among
the highschool students. Their alleged statement that a fellow
student had been attacked by Bogor students prompted the Jakarta
students to seek revenge. The story later turned out to be
untrue.
Edmond said on Monday that officers were only tracing the
whereabouts of the other two suspects, as he was following
hospital reports that Agus was one of the victims.
On Tuesday, Edmond said he would seek help from Jakarta Police
detectives to apprehend the two suspects, who he identified as
Ismail, a counselor at SPM Ahitama, and Dadang, whose background
remained unclear.
In Jakarta, SPM Adhitama principal Suryanto, said his school
will probably impose "administrative sanctions" on all students
involved in the brawl.
"We'll also invite the students along with their parents for a
briefing at the school in an attempt to avoid such an incident
again."
He said the date of the meeting is yet to be confirmed but
that class scheduling would return to normal from next week.
When asked about counselor Ismail's alleged role in the brawl
that led to the drowning of his students, Suryanto said police
were wrong.
"It is impossible that Ismail provoked the students since he's
the one here responsible for supervising the students."
According to Suryanto, Ismail attended SPM Karyadharma last
Wednesday to invite student representatives to hold a meeting to
resolve persistent student clashes.
"He even met the SPM Karyadharma principal, Ashvin Tanjung,
obtaining permission from him to invite the students to attend
the meeting."
The meeting was scheduled to be held last Saturday at SPM
Adhitama. It was canceled following the brawl in Bogor, he said.
Suryanto did not reveal whether he knew the whereabouts of
Ismail, who graduated from SPM Adhitama last year. (24/01/bsr)