Three soldiers nabbed for stealing excavator

Three soldiers nabbed for stealing excavator

Puji Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru

Local residents apprehended three soldiers and three civilians in
Kampar regency, Riau province, here for stealing an excavator.

Had the police not intervened, the three soldiers would have
been burned alive by angry residents, a senior police officer
claimed on Thursday.

The incident, which dealt another blow to the Indonesian
Military's (TNI) image, began when the soldiers, helped by the
civilians, dismantled an excavator on Wednesday afternoon
belonging to local councillor and businessman, Afridar.

The three soldiers, from the Air Defense Battalion of Bukit
Barisan Military Command, and the civilians, skillfully
dismantled the Komatsu excavator in a plantation in Kebun Durian
subdistrict with the help of various equipment, including a
welding iron.

However, as the six men were occupied, they were not aware
that one of Afridar's workers had spotted them dismantling the
heavy machinery and loading the pieces onto a military truck.

The worker reported his finding to local residents and
hundreds of residents quickly assembled to deal with the
plunderers.

The residents marched to the plantation but on their way
there, they saw the military truck pass by the street leaving the
subdistrict. The angry residents stopped the truck, and forced
the six men to get out of the truck. The residents were enraged,
as it was the third case in the past two months. Earlier, two
units of heavy machinery belonging to fellow residents had been
stolen, allegedly by the same perpetrators.

Some residents beat up the civilians and even threatened to
burn alive the three soldiers, but fortunately police personnel
arrived at the scene and calmed the angry residents, said Kampar
Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Abdul Hasyim Gani.

The three soldiers were identified by their initials as Chief
Sgt. MU, Chief Sgt. CAS and Second Corp. IN, while the three
civilians were from Lampung province.