Two policemen injured in clash with soldiers in Riau

Two policemen injured in clash with soldiers in Riau

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru, Riau

Security personnel in Riau clearly failed to learn from the Sept.
28, 2002, Binjai incident, as a group of soldiers and police
officers were involved in a clash on Tuesday that left two police
officers injured.

First Insp. Bromindu, Bengkali Police's chief of detectives,
suffered minor injuries, while Second Brig. Aswin Nugroho
received a gunshot wound to the neck. The two are being treated
at the general hospital in Dumai.

Bromindu was injured when he and several of his subordinates
became involved in a clash with a group of soldiers from the
Army's Missile Force 004 unit in Dumai on Monday night. The clash
followed a brawl between hoodlums and soldiers in a red-light
district some 15 kilometers from Dumai, a port town in the
province.

The spokesman for the Riau Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. S.
Pandiangan, said on Tuesday the clash began after a soldier who
was questioned about the brawl in the red-light district went
back to his barracks to rouse his friends to attack the police
officers.

He said a team of officers led by Bromindu had been deployed
to the red-light district after the police received reports of a
brawl between hoodlums and soldiers.

"The drunken soldier went and got his fellow soldiers because
he did not appreciated being questioned by the police about the
brawl," Pandiangan said.

After clashing with the police officers, the soldiers attacked
the Bengkalis Police office at about 1 a.m. on Tuesday. Second
Brig. Aswin Nugroho, who was on duty at the time, was shot in the
neck during the attack. A police truck also was vandalized.

Witnesses said the soldiers also shot out the tire of a
passing minibus that was carrying several passengers, including a
pregnant woman on her way to the general hospital.

According to the witnesses, the minibus overturned after
losing the tire, leaving all of the passengers injured.

Riau Police chief Brig. Gen. Dedy S. Komaruddin and Dumai
Military District chief Lt. Col. Felix Hutabarat visited the
clash site, agreeing to investigate the matter thoroughly.

Maj. Gen. Tri Tamtomo, chief of the Bukit Barisan Military
Command overseeing North and West Sumatra and Riau, also visited
Dumai.

Col. Darmawi Chaidir, chief of the Riau Military District,
said the Military Police in Pekanbaru had arrested the soldier
who instigated the attack.

Three people, including two police officers, were killed in a
clash between police officers and members of the Army's airborne
unit in Binjai, some 30 kilometers north of Medan, North Sumatra,
last September.

Besides being dismissed from the Army, 19 members of the
airborne unit also were sentenced to between three months and 18
months in prison for their role in the attack on a police station
and the Mobile Brigade headquarters in the town.