West African visitors robbed by taxi driver

JAKARTA (JP): Two visitors from West Africa were robbed by a taxi driver and his accomplice on their way back to a hotel in Central Jakarta on Friday night, police said Saturday.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said that his office was finding it difficult to trace either the driver or his friend but promised to do his best to catch the two.

"It's not easy for us to search for the suspects because the victims could not give clear descriptions of the characteristics of the crooks or the taxi," he said.

The victims, identified as Akang BT, 41, and Aminau AC, 44, were robbed late on Friday night when they were heading to the Alamanda hotel in Petamburan after visiting Plaza Indonesia.

Aritonang said the two suspects had allegedly used the same trick in previous robberies.

"Under the scheme the taxi driver targets women or foreigners as his customers before later picking up his accomplice somewhere else," he said.

The suspects prefer to take foreigners because they presume the latter are not familiar with the capital's roads, he said.

According to the victims, soon after they got into the taxi at Plaza Indonesia the driver picked up a man and then seemed to drive the taxi around aimlessly, said Aritonang.

He said the driver stopped somewhere in North Jakarta. "The suspects pointed a knife at the victims, asking for money and jewelry. They later sealed the victims' mouths with wide cellophane tape."

Aminau told the police that one of the suspects bit his little finger when he tried to stop the man from taking his ring off his finger, Aritonang said.

Aminau and Akang were abandoned in front of the Mitrapraja building in North Jakarta and were taken by local people to the nearby Medika Griya hospital for medical treatment, said the spokesman.

He said that the two had been in the city for some time on a cultural visit. (cst)