Police still have a lot of formidable footwork to do

Police still have a lot of formidable footwork to do

By K. Basrie

JAKARTA (JP): Despite public appreciation and a special award
from President Soeharto for their recent success in identifying
and apprehending the suspects in the Bekasi gang rape, City
police still have a lot of formidable footwork to do.

Among the priority cases which have yet to be solved are the
killing of 23-year-old servant Djasman in September, 1993, the
brutal murder of six members of the Hutagalung family in Bekasi
in January last year and the murder of the six-year-old Levina
Dwisy, who was found dead near her bicycle in Ancol dreamland in
North Jakarta in March last year.

Others include the killing of entertainment businessman Nyo
Beng Seng, who was brutally stabbed on April 15 last year in
North Jakarta, the mysterious death of Themanto, 19, a new
recruit of the student regiment at the privately-owned
Tarumanegara University, on Jan. 29 this year in West Jakarta and
the killing of a physician whose body was found in a bathroom at
the Hero Green Garden supermarket in Kedoya, West Jakarta, on May
26 this year.

The recent robbery and gang rape of a mother and her two
teenage daughters in Bekasi, about 30 kilometers east of the
city, was solved by the Bekasi police with the strong back-up of
city police in just a matter of days when police managed to
arrest 11 suspects.

On Aug. 7, President Soeharto presented the Abdisatyabakti
award to Captain Edward Penong, the chief detective of the Bekasi
police precinct, during a ceremony at the State Palace.

Many police officials attribute the success of solving the
gang rape to the strong discipline of the police personnel in
concealing any information about the progress of their
investigation from the press.

The rare award from the President has spurred and galvanized
the police force into "greater actions" in their concerted
efforts to immediately solve other cases.

Now when asked by reporters about their progress, the standard
reply from police officers has become: "We're still investigating
the cases."

The police have yet to announce, for example, the latest
progress of their investigation on the killing of servant
Djasman.

They had earlier named a number of executives of the powerful
Pemuda Pancasila youth organization as suspects. Some of the
executives had even been detained for several days but were later
released. They have, however, been banned from leaving the
country for their alleged roles in the crime.

Nationwide manhunt

In tracking down the suspect in the killing of Herbin
Hutagalung's wife, sister and his four children, police claim
that their detectives have questioned a great number of witnesses
and went to various towns and villages in Java, Bali and Sumatra
in a nationwide manhunt for the suspect, identified as Suyono,
alias Gendut, a construction worker once hired by the family.

The six victims were brutally clubbed to death with blunt
instruments at the family's house in Kampung Sawah, Jatiwarna
village, Pondok Gede, Bekasi, on Jan. 5, 1994.

Many police detectives believe that Gendut is now living and
working somewhere in Malaysia.

The murder of Levina, second of three children of an ethnic
Chinese bicycle shop owner, on March 25, 1994, in North Jakarta
is also still a mystery.

The dead body of the kindergarten student was found under
bushes near a temple outside the former Ancol race track with her
bicycle nearby. Her assailant had apparently used her clothes to
strangle her.

There is no evidence that the girl was raped before her death
but the autopsy report issued by the Cipto Mangunkusumo General
Hospital states that a blunt object had been inserted into the
vagina of the little girl.

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 have named his main
business competitor Hong Lie, 39, alias Herry Cahyadi, as the
man who masterminded the murder. But police have been unable to
apprehend him. He is now reportedly staying in Singapore.

Mystery also surrounds the death of Themanto, who died after
taking part in a basic military training course for the
university's student regiment recruits, although police have said
that the alleged killer is a fellow student of the same
university.

Despite police claims that the dossiers have been handed over
to the local prosecutor's office, they could not explain why they
have yet to detain the suspect, giving rise to wild speculations
as to the "status" of the man.

The West Jakarta police are also still in the dark about the
death of physician Irianto, 27, who was fatally stabbed in the
back and neck in a bathroom at Hero Green Garden supermarket.

However, they believe that the motive for the killing was not
purely robbery.