Sacked officer questioned over Tangerang riot

Sacked officer questioned over Tangerang riot

JAKARTA (JP): First Lt. Mahyudin Chaniago, who was dismissed
from his post as chief of the Kronjo subprecinct in Tangerang
Thursday, is now undergoing questioning concerning the recent
riot in which his office was damaged.

"Through the questioning, we expect to be able to determine
what rules the officer might have violated and what punishment he
might face," National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo said
here on Saturday.

Mahyudin is being interrogated at the Internal Affairs
division of the Jakarta Police Department.

Mahyudin was abruptly dismissed to appease the hundreds of
angry residents, who had thrown stones at the subprecinct office
on Wednesday. They were upset at a rumor that an area resident,
identified as Supena, had been detained on Wednesday for reading
the Holy Koran over a loudspeaker too early in the morning at a
local mosque.

The rumor of the arrest of Supena spread to the neighboring
district of Mauk and hundreds of poorly-informed people attacked
Mahyudin's office.

Supena later explained to the angry residents that Mahyudin
had simply told him on Wednesday not to recite prayers over
loudspeakers too early in the morning as many people who had just
returned from work after midnight were still sleeping.

"The questioning hasn't been completed yet. If evidence to
charge him is not found, there will be nothing wrong in freeing
him. We have been informed so far that the incident was purely
caused by a misunderstanding," Dibyo told reporters after taking
part in a routine weekend exercise with senior police officers at
the Ancol Dreamland complex in North Jakarta.

That's why, he said, Mahyudin has not been fired from police
force. He was just "temporarily transferred to the Jakarta Police
Headquarters."

Dibyo called upon the residents of Kronjo, which is about 60
kilometers west of here, to calm down.

No fatalities were reported in the attack, but all of the
windows in the police subprecinct office were smashed.

Under the permission of Greater Jakarta Police Chief. May.
Gen. Hamami Nata, Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna, the newly-installed
Tangerang Police chief, ordered Mahyudin to quit his post and
installed Second Lt. Harun Idris, deputy head of the nearby
Jatiuwung police precinct, to replace Mahyudin.

"The dismissal was carried out 'to neutralize' a
misunderstanding between officers and residents," he said.

The incident was the first test for Iman, who had just taken
his new post in Tangerang one day before the incident happened.
He was previously the spokesman for the Greater Jakarta police.

Iman was installed on Tuesday to replace Lt. Col. Djoko
Satryo. During Djoko's six-month period, at least two Tangerang
police officers were arrested.

The first one was head of the Tangerang police detectives,
Capt. Ade Sutiana, who was charged with negligence in relation to
the escape of a suspected Ecstasy trafficker.

The second officer, Capt. Unggul, was apprehended for
allegedly extorting money from a suspected gambler he had
arrested.

The two cases are now being re-examined by the Jakarta
Military Police prior to possible trial at the military tribunal.

National Police Chief Dibyo pledged to continue his campaign
to fight against any unscrupulous personnel in the police force.

"To do that, we do need the active role and participation of
the public by informing us with accurate data about any dishonest
police officers," he said. (bsr)