Two held for alleged graft, murder in Poso

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Palu

The Central Sulawesi police chief of detectives disclosed that investigators had detained two people from Poso regency believed to have stolen refugee aid money and murdered a village chief who refused to go along with their scheme.

"Ahmad Laparigi is now being held at the Palu penitentiary, while Andi Makkasau is in custody at the Central Sulawesi police headquarters," Sr. Comr. Arif Rachim told reporters at the police station.

He said that the two men were accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of rupiah from the Poso refugee funds allocated by the central government this year. According to Arif, besides fabricating the list of refugees, they had also stolen some of the money that was supposed to be distributed to the village chiefs. The village chiefs were entrusted to hand over aid to the refugees.

After a preliminary police investigation, there were strong indications that they had not given the right amount of funds to the villages, in accordance with the number of refugee families.

Thousands of Poso residents have taken refuge throughout Central Sulawesi province after sectarian clashes over the last four years have killed some 2,000 Muslims and Christians in the regency. Some residents returned to their homes after the security situation improved somewhat in 2002, but others have remained in refugee camps or at relatives' homes as they fear more bloodshed in the religiously divided province.

Meanwhile, Arif said that the two men were also suspects in the beheading of Pinedapa village chief, Carminalis Ndele, believed to have occurred on Nov. 4.

The police reached that conclusion because they believed the motive for Carminalis' murder was closely related to the distribution of the refugee funds, said Arif. Based on testimonies from a number of witnesses, Carminalis was murdered because he had refused to accept the funds from the suspects after he realized that the amount was not correct. Each refugee family should have received Rp 2.5 million.

Worried that Carminalis would later report the matter to the authorities, the two allegedly hired assassins, who murdered Carminalis by decapitating him.

Police are still investigating the case by questioning several witnesses who might know of solid links between the refugee fund scam and the murder of the village chief.

The police will also question a number of officials at the Poso Social Welfare Office, who may have been involved in refugee aid scam worth over Rp 1 billion (US$111,111) in 2004 alone.

"We initially found that the funds had amounted to Rp 1 billion, but only Rp 650 million of that amount was disbursed to the refugees," he said.

Separately, in the case of the bomb that was set off on a full public minivan on Nov. 13, which killed six people at a local market, Arif explained that the police were still questioning witnesses. The driver of the minivan, Dekianus, told police that he was shopping for groceries inside the market when it exploded. He was shocked when he learned that it was his minivan. The explosion took place in front of a market in Poso and injured several others in addition to the six fatalities.

Dekianus was released after the questioning, said Arif, a former Central Sulawesi legislator.