'Vengeance' behind killing spree

'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)