Reporter vs reporters

BANDUNG: A Bandung-based reporter has had to evacuate his family following a series of terror from other reporters over his article on an alleged Rp 1.3 billion swindle of farmers' funds (KUT).

Asep Sobandi from the Galamedia daily, who has not worked for a week, sent his wife and child to his wife's hometown in Tasikmalaya, some 100 km south of Bandung, last Friday. Asep is also believed to be in Tasikmalaya.

Asep wrote on Dec. 14, 1999, that as many as 30 local reporters had received between Rp 1 million and Rp 5 million each from the chairman of Kota Mas cooperative, identified only as Be. The cooperative was designated to drop the state money for farmers, members of the cooperative.

On Jan. 11, Asep wrote another story saying that both Bandung and West Java Provincial prosecutors' offices had been intensifying their investigation of the alleged fraud.

Before disappearing, Asep had told other colleagues that he fought two local reporters who had threatened him over the articles. (25/sur)