Police face backlog of cases despite progress

Police face backlog of cases despite progress

JAKARTA (JP): Despite recent praise from the public for their
excellent work in solving challenging crimes, the City Police
Force is facing a heavy backlog of criminal cases.

The solving of most of the cases, which once made newspaper
headlines, has been pending for more than one year.

Among the crimes still being investigated are the killing of
23-year-old servant Djasman in September, 1993, the brutal murder
of six members of the Hutagalung family in Bekasi and the
mysterious death of a young businessman at the residence of
actress Ria Irawan in January last year.

Others include the murder of six-year-old Levina Dwisy, who
was found dead near her bicycle in the Ancol area of North
Jakarta in March of last year. The police investigations to
determine the mastermind of the killing of entertainment
businessman Nyo Beng Seng on April 15 last year in North Jakarta,
and the killing of ex-convict Johny Sembiring, who was a noted
figure in the city's debt collector circles, in August last year
have yet to be finished.

This year alone, police have had a hard time probing a number
of cases, such as the mysterious killing of a physician whose
body was found in a bathroom at a supermarket in Kedoya, West
Jakarta, in May, the missing of an African charged with heroin
trafficking from the City Police Headquarters cell early this
month and the death of a 40-year-old housewife in a cell of the
Pulogadung police sub-precinct in East Jakarta early last week.

It is still unknown whether the city detectives are still
working on the cases, but public expect the city police, under
the leadership of their new chief, Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo, to
continue to investigated the challenging crimes.

Since being appointed Greater Jakarta police chief nine months
ago, Dibyo and his investigators have recorded remarkable success
in solving major crimes through scientific methods in just a
matter of days.

The recent success of his team in solving the case of a brutal
killing of a mother and her three young children has earned
appreciation from the public.

Dibyo's personnel in Bekasi recently received a rare award
from President Soeharto for their recent success in identifying
and apprehending the suspects in a local gang rape.

However, the public wonder whether Dibyo will be able to solve
the old cases, which might have involved influential people.

National Police Chief Gen. Banurusman Astrosemitro once
pledged to continue the intensive investigations into the
unsolved cases.

"We pledge to keep on hunting all the suspects to settle the
debt that we owe," the four-star general said.

And, Banurusman added, "we never intend to just do nothing,
nor to close any of the cases."

The police investigation into the killing of servant Djasman
has yet to be solved although detectives earlier named a number
of executives of the powerful Pemuda Pancasila youth organization
as suspects. Some of that group's executives were detained for
several days but were later released.

In tracking down the suspect in the killing of Herbin
Hutagalung's wife, sister and his four children, police claim
that the suspect is currently working somewhere in Malaysia.

Similar to the other unsolved cases, the murder of Levina,
second of three children of an ethnic Chinese bicycle shop owner,
on March 25, 1994, in North Jakarta also remains a mystery.

Local police detectives suspect the girl was murdered by hired
killers paid by a lover of the girl's father.

In the case of Beng Seng's killing, police are still in the
dark as to who masterminded the crime. Earlier, they named the
victim's competitor, who is staying in Singapore, as the suspect,
but said they were unable to question him due to the absence of
an extradition treaty between Jakarta and Singapore.

The progress of the investigations into the other cases
remains unclear, causing the widespread assumption among the
public that the cases have been temporarily closed by the city
police. (bsr)