Victims of Irian shooting buried with military honors

JAKARTA (JP): Five soldiers, who were slain in a shooting spree by a colleague at Timika airport in Irian Jaya, Monday, were buried with full military honors at the heroes cemetery in Jayapura, yesterday.

The five were killed when a second lieutenant ran amok shooting to death 11 soldiers and four civilians, including a foreign helicopter pilot.

The burial ceremony was attended by the commander of the Army Special Force, Brig. Gen. Prabowo Subianto.

The incident took place at 5 a.m. local time after the special forces second lieutenant got involved in a dispute with a fellow officer. The lieutenant suddenly picked up a machine gun and sprayed the soldiers and civilian workers with bullets.

The five buried in Jayapura were Lt. Col. Adel Gusti Mego, chief of the local detachment of the Army Special Force, Capt. Sujatmiko of the Army Strategic Reserves Command, and Maj. Gunawan, Sgt. Maj. Yaswanto and Chief Private Rudi, whose units are still to be clarified.

The six other soldiers also killed in the tragedy are scheduled to be buried at the Sorong military cemetery today, the Antara news agency reported yesterday.

They were part of the unit sent to Timika last month by the Sorong district military command in western Irian Jaya to subdue a riot involving local residents.

Chief spokesman for the Armed Forces, Brig. Gen. Amir Syarifudin, said on Monday that the dead soldiers were part of the security team which had been sent to Timika since the riot.

The body of Michael Findlay, the only foreigner killed in the incident, was due to be sent to Wellington, New Zealand, on a Boeing 737 belonging to PT Airfast Indonesia yesterday, Antara said.

In Jakarta relatives of the victims waited in tears for the return of the victims' wives, who had attended their husbands' burial ceremony in Jayapura.

Only a few senior military officials were present at the Halim Perdanakusuma airport to meet the relatives of the victims. Among the welcoming officials was Maj. Gen. A.M. Hendropriyono, commander of the Army's Training Center.

The first airplane landed at Halim Perdanakusuma airport at 3:30 p.m. carrying the wives and relatives of Adel Gusti Mego, and Rianto Simarmata. Among the other passengers was Mrs. Titi Prabowo, wife of the special forces commander.

The relatives of Sujatmiko arrived at the airport in the evening.

The body of Antonius Budi Avianto, a mechanical engineer at Timika airport, who was also killed in the incident, arrived at Halim at 12:30 p.m. The body was immediately flown to Bandung, where he will be buried. (imn)

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