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.