Police search for provocateurs of fatal incident in Bogor
BOGOR (JP): Police are still searching for two men believed to be responsible for spreading rumors that led to a street brawl and river drownings on Friday, so far claiming the lives of 14 students.
As of Monday evening, divers from the police Mobile Brigade were searching the Cisadane River, where the 14 bodies were found, for more Jakarta maritime high school student corpses.
In Jakarta, the highschool principals and deputies were summoned by senior officials at the inspectorate general office of the Ministry of Education and Culture for clarification of the incident.
The visiting students, traveled to Bogor to revenge an alleged attack on a fellow student by Bogor students. The account later turned out to be untrue.
The students were believed to have drowned in the river while fleeing locals, who intended to disperse the midday brawl.
"(The drowning) was purely an accident. It was raining and the river's current was flowing quickly," Bogor Police chief Lt. Col. Edmond Ilyas said on Monday.
He said two men, identified as Ismail, a counselor at SPM Adhitama maritime school, and Dadang, whose position is yet to be clarified, provoked the brawl.
"Actually, there were three people who instigated the brawl. But one of them, Agus Pranoto, was among the 14 students fatally drowned in the Cisadane River after the brawl," Edmond said.
According to Edmond, it is believed the three circulated rumors last week among the maritime high school students in Jakarta. A group of 100 boys traveled to Bogor by train on Friday afternoon to take revenge.
Stab
Agus, a student at SPM Adhitama allegedly told class mates on Tuesday that his friend, Agus Ramdani, was stabbed by students from Bogor's Penerbangan technical high school (STM Penerbangan), Edmond said.
The story, later found to be untrue, was confirmed by Dadang, the officer added.
Students from SPM Adhitama as well as their counselor Ismail were provoked by the rumor, he said.
"Ismail requested support from three other maritime schools, SPM Baruna, SPM Karya Dharma and SPM Adhitama to take revenge," Edmond said.
The Jakarta students arrived in Bogor at 3 p.m. on Friday and traveled to STM Penerbangan on Jl. Semeru, Edmond said.
Before reaching the school, the students destroyed fences around the YKTB technical high school (STIM YKTB) on the same street, he said.
"But teachers from STM YKTB managed to calm their students to avert a brawl."
The Jakartan students then saw four students from STM Penerbangan in an angkot (public minivan). They chased after the vehicle, attacked the local students and destroyed the vehicle, Edmond said.
Four Bogor STM Penerbangan students were seriously injured, he said.
Locals, concerned about the violence, reported the brawl to a nearby police station.
Edmond said police managed to arrest 41 visiting students, while the others jumped into the river attempting to seek refuge on a nearby golf course.
"At that time we didn't know the students had drowned in the river. We only knew their fate after their bodies were discovered floating on the river the next day."
Relatives claimed 12 of the 14 bodies, with the remaining two bodies, yet to be identified, still being held at Bogor's PMI Indonesian Red Cross Hospital.
Out of the 41 students apprehended, only two -- Sumardi and Suprianto, both from SPM Adhitama -- were detained, as they were found in the possession of a machete and a sword.
No idea
In Jakarta, Tugirin, a teacher from SPM Adhitama located on Jl. Batuampar in Condet, East Jakarta, said school authorities were unaware of the attack and death of their students until they heard media reports on Monday.
"So far, no families or student relatives have come here to report their missing sons," he told The Jakarta Post.
He said the school principal and deputy together with their colleagues from the other two schools were summoned to the Ministry of Education and Culture to account for the incident.
Tugirin insisted his school was not responsible for the students' deaths.
"It's not our responsibility because the incident (when the students left for Bogor) happened in the morning, not during official teaching hours."
The other two schools are located on Jl. Permata in Cawang (SPM Baruna) and at Gang Ayama in Kramatjati (SPM Karya Dharma), both in East Jakarta.
A security guard at SPM Baruna said "a group of men" from SPM Adhitama visited the school at about 11:15 a.m. on Friday. They departed from the school with 12 Baruna students, he said.
No classes were held at SPM Baruna on Monday in memory of the dead students. Teachers cautioned their students from involvement in student brawls. (24/jun/01)