Servicemen held over Soe incident

Antara, Kupang

Maj. Gen. William T. da Costa, chief of the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali, West and East Nusa Tenggara, asserted that he would take strict action against the servicemen who were suspected of being involved in the Soe incident that left a policeman dead.

"We are still investigating the incident. Two servicemen have been detained to undergo an intensive Military Police investigation," he said in Kupang on Tuesday.

Antara reported that Second Lt. FS, commander of the Timur Tengah Selatan Military Subdistrict, had been detained by the Military Police for giving permission for gambling activities in the regency to raise funds to rehabilitate his official residence, while Capt. S., an intelligence officer, was detained because besides protecting the gambling activities, he was also allegedly involved in the incident.

The incident occurred when hundreds of East Timorese refugees came to the Timor Tengah Selatan police station to demand the return of goods the police had seized as part of an operation to rid refugee camps in the regency of gambling by the end of September 2001. The refugees ran amok and attacked on-duty personnel, leaving a policeman, identified as Immanuel Mean, dead.

Da Costa pledged the military command would be transparent in carrying out the investigation and would bring to justice those who were found guilty of backing up the gambling activities and of provoking refugees to attack the police station.

"If the soldiers are proven guilty in the gambling case and in this incident, they could be dismissed from the military and be prosecuted in accordance with military law," he said.

He said the military had never allowed servicemen to back up gambling activities to raise funds for certain purposes as this was against the law.

He also said he would encourage the police to fight against any gambling rackets that might encourage the refugees to stay on Indonesian soil.