'Vengeance' behind killing spree

JAKARTA (JP): National Police chief Maj. Gen. Roesmanhadi said on Monday that revenge was behind East Java's mysterious murder spree in which more than 150 people -- many of them Islamic teachers -- have been killed.

However, he also said vigilance was needed because communists would seek to exploit the fear haunting residents of some regencies such as Banyuwangi and Jember.

"There are communists who are seeking to reappear or maybe their children and grandchildren who have been bearing grudges because their forefathers were killed (in the bloodbath following the 1965 coup attempt blamed on the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party)," he said.

"I know for sure because I am from East Java," he added.

"The community is being divided because of personal feuds or political revenge... such (as when) people believed a Koranic teacher was a black magic practitioner."

He admitted that the police had been slow in their handling of the murders which began more than two months ago, but it was because of "people's poor understanding that we're short of personnel."

Banyuwangi, which has a population of 1.5 million, is a vast area and its villages are widely scattered, and each police precinct only has up to 30 personnel, he said. One officer, for instance, was in charge of security in six to seven villages, despite only having limited equipment.

"Police were late in detecting the murders because the residents were late in informing them," he said.

On Sunday, the chairman of the country's largest Moslem organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Abdurrahman Wahid, said the organization trusted the Armed Forces (ABRI) and the East Java provincial government to solve the gruesome murders.

There are millions of NU members in East Java.

On Monday, the Association of Nahdlatul Ulama's Children (IPNU), the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), noted opposition figure Amien Rais, and Aisyah Aminy of the respected National Commission on Human Rights joined the chorus calling for an immediate probe into the murders.

In a statement read out by IPNU secretary-general Abdullah Azwar Anas at a media conference here, the youth organization urged the local military command and administration to solve the cases "quickly, justly and in accordance with the law."

"Otherwise, the government's public image will decline again," the statement said.

Separately, in a statement signed by its chairman Sularso Sopater and secretary-general J.M. Pattiasina, PGI extended its condolences to the Moslem community in Banyuwangi who had fallen victim to the violence.

"We urge the government to probe this tragedy thoroughly and solve it in accordance with the law. We have noted that the methods and results of the (government's) handling of several riots and violence that resulted in casualties, was not thorough and failed to serve the people's demand for justice," it said.

Aisyah Aminy said the rights commission has dispatched a team to Banyuwangi, but its findings were not conclusive on the question of whether there were political motives for the crimes.

In the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak, the chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) Amien Rais supported Abdurrahman's statement that the Armed Forces must resolve the killings.

He also called for the perpetrators to be put on public trial.

"Open trials must be staged, because covered up, things will only be more disorderly and messy," he said.

Residents in the East Java regency of Jember beat to death two men in the early hours of Monday in Balung Lor village, Balung district, the Surabaya Post paper said.

Quoting a police source, the daily said members of residents' night patrols ganged up on the two men -- identified as Kholik and Sodikin from Jombang regency -- they suspected of being killers who had recently been terrorizing local people. The two Jombang men were reportedly wearing ninja-like black clothing and masks when the residents came upon them.

Banyuwangi is 105 kilometers east of Jember, which is 198 kilometers east of Surabaya.

The killings in Banyuwangi initially targeted people suspected of dabbling in witchcraft, but later spread to Koranic teachers and Moslem leaders known locally as kyai.

In many traditional Moslem boarding schools in Jember, security has visibly been beefed up as more and more kyai have received telephone threats that they would be killed.

A kyai in Jember, Muzamil Ahsba, said he and several other Moslem leaders had been receiving such phone threats. (nur/aan/emf)