Police to charge four for digging up gardens
Police to charge four for digging up gardens
Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
Four of seven people apprehended while digging up the Bogor
Botanical Gardens last Friday are to be charged with damaging a
conservation site, an officer said on Sunday.
Bogor Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Yayan Sopian said
the four would be charged with violating Article 27 of Law No.
5/1992 on nature preserves.
"The excavation was illegal ... should the four be found
guilty of violating the law, they may face a minimum sentence of
five years in prison," he said.
The four suspects have been identified as Rahmawati, Martono,
Agus and Darsono.
Their three accomplices -- Bambang, Warsini and Apriandi --
were released late on Friday.
According to the police, the investigators questioned several
witnesses, among them Botanical Gardens general affairs manager
Dachrijani Mardi and the security guards on duty at the time in
question.
The seven were apprehended while on a mystically inspired
mission to find treasure buried inside the gardens.
Rahmawati claimed she had received a wangsit (divine
inspiration) from a Dutch woman in a dream last Tuesday in which
she was told to make a devotional visit to the graves of Dutch
people supposedly buried in the gardens. The next day, Rahmawati
and husband Bambang went to the site and found a brown pouch
containing two stones and a note in Dutch that claimed there was
treasure buried in the gardens.
Rahmawati dreamed again that night that the Dutch woman told
her to look for the grave of Queen Siluman (a mythical figure who
takes the appearance of an animal for mischievous purposes) in
the gardens, where there were blocks of gold and platinum
underneath, the value of which were enough to pay off the state's
debts.
The existence of Queen Siluman's grave has not been confirmed.
Separately, the coordinator of the Indonesian Lovers of Nature
and Culture Community (AMPCBI), Gartono, said the law was only
imposed on the poor.
"How could Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Al Munawar
be freed from any consequences even though he once blatantly
damaged a conservation area?" he remarked.
He was referring to an excavation in 2002 at Batu Tulis,
Bogor, a site near a stone inscription dating back to the 16th
century Pajajaran Kingdom.
Said Agil claimed that he was told by a "wise man" that there
was treasure buried there and, if discovered, could repay the
country's debts.