Victims of Irian shooting buried with military honors
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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