Reporters beat up intelligence officer

JAKARTA (JP): An intelligence officer was beaten up on Thursday by a group of angry reporters and photographers for blocking and pulling the collars of some of their colleagues when they tried to interview former president Soeharto's golfing buddy Mohamad "Bob" Hasan.

The officer, identified as First Sgt. Ramli, was carrying an FN .45 pistol and wearing a brown vest. He was pretending to be one of the reporters who covered Hasan's six-hour questioning at the Attorney General's Office in connection with widespread allegations of corruption.

When a group of photographers tried to take Bob's picture, Ramli got in their way and pulled at the collars of the pushy reporters after Hasan proved very reluctant to answer their questions.

"He was disturbing our job. Imagine, he grabbed my collar and tried to pull me away. That was why I kicked him away," Arbain Rambey, a photographer for the Kompas daily told The Jakarta Post.

After that Ramli tried to bug other reporters. "We then shouted: 'Thief... thief...' and he apparently got scared and ran away with a bunch of angry reporters ran after him.

"Unfortunately the rather chubby officer tripped, causing his gun to fall onto the road," Arbain said.

The officer suffered bruises all over his body and face after at least 10 reporters and photographers jumped on him and punched him.

"One of the reporters hit him hard in his nose. Well... he was really a pain in the ass. We were really disturbed by then. Imagine, we had waited from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It was hot and we were very hungry," Arbain recalled.

Ramli was later saved by staff from the Attorney General's Office.

"We suspected that he (Ramli) was one of Bob Hasan's bodyguards. Even after he was taken in, some of the angry reporters tried to break down the door," Arbain said.

The officer, who turned out to be from the Jakarta Military Command, was reportedly sent back to his base, pending a further investigation. (edt)