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.