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.