Police still in the dark about killings of boys

JAKARTA (JP): After days of investigations, police said yesterday they were still in the dark about the recent killings of eight boys who were believed to have been sodomized.

"In the meantime, we have only come to the conclusion that the killings were allegedly committed by one person who is poor and has sadistic, deviated sexual behavior," head of the Jakarta police detectives, Col. Paimin AB, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

The wanted suspect, Paimin said, is believed to have had a close relationship with the teenage victims, all of whom were street children, such as beggars and drink sellers.

Eight boys between the ages of 11 and 13 have been found dead over the past two years at the defunct Kemayoran airport in Central Jakarta and in Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta.

The victims were found naked and half-naked with their stomachs torn out and necks wounded. In most cases, police found only a razor and the victims' clothes near the decomposed bodies.

"All of the razors were of the same brand," said East Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Gories Mere, who led a special team code-named Operasi Gila (Crazy Operation) to investigate the serial killings.

Speaking to the Post yesterday, Mere said that the suspect might have used the razor to slash each victim's stomach and another unknown tool to stab their necks.

"Seven of the eight bodies had L-shaped wounds on their stomachs," he said.

According to Mere, the team had learned that all of the boys were from poor families, none of which owned a television.

"That's why their families did not know anything about the stories shown by the TV stations," he said.

Police data shows that the first victim, still unidentified and about 10, was found in his school uniform in some bushes at Pondok Kopi on April 28, 1994. The second victim, about 13 and also still unidentified, was found near a riverbank at Pondok Kopi on Dec. 15, 1994.

The third was found in bushes in Kemayoran on March 23, 1995. He was identified a year later as Andri Rionaldo, 13.

The next victim -- later identified as Gito, 13 -- was found on July 18, 1995 near a school at Pondok Kopi with his tambourine. He was believed to be a street singer.

The fifth, about 13 and still unidentified, was found near a golf course in Kemayoran on Sept. 13, 1995. The next victim, around 12 and also unidentified, was found on April 9, 1996, also in Kemayoran.

The seventh, identified yesterday as Ibnu Wisnu Dwi Pranoto, 11, was found in Kemayoran on June 26, 1996. The last victim, recently identified as Kasikin, 11, was found in Pondok Kopi on July 5, 1996.

Central Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Abubakar Nataprawira said that police are now searching for a primary witness believed to have information which could solve the killing of Dwi Pranoto.

In a related issue yesterday, police have arrested three men accused of sexually assaulting underaged boys.

"They have admitted to sodomizing street children, but denied having committed such an offense against the eight victims. They also denied to having killed them," City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna said.

According to officer Mere, the sperm of the three men has been brought to the police laboratory for DNA tests.

Police arrested a man several months ago later identified as Vicky Randa, 25, believed to have played a certain role in the killings.

However, he admitted having anal sex with four children, none of whom were the victims. Vicky died while in police detention, weeks after his arrest. (bsr/jun)