The Jakarta Post, November 12, 2005
Gun-totting civil servants caught
M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post/Ambon
Two civil servants here were caught red-handed carrying an automatic rifle and several
other weapons. The pair were stopped as they were riding on a motorcycle in Passo
subdistrict, Ambon Baguala Bay district, Ambon, on Thursday, a senior police officer
said on Friday.
The two men, Agustinus Latureke, 53, and Paulus Naskay, 40, employees of the
Maluku Plantations Agency, were arrested by a member of the Maluku Police's water
and air service as they were traveling toward Ambon city.
They were found carrying an Australian-made automatic RMS Colt, two machetes, 20
rounds of 5.36 caliber ammunition and a magazine. They were taken to Maluku
Police's water and air service base not far from the scene of the arrests.
When asked by The Jakarta Post, water and air service chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Lunik
Widodo confirmed the arrests. He said that one of his men had arrested the two men
in possession of dangerous weapons as they were passing through Passo on a
motorbike.
Adj. Comr. Saimima, who was also riding a motorcycle, became suspicious of the
two men on the motorbike in front of him, who were carrying a plastic sack whose
shape indicated it contained a rifle.
Saimima immediately stopped them. After asking them to open the sack, the officer
discovered that it contained a rifle and other weapons.
"The type of rifle they were in carrying is not used by the Indonesian Armed Forces
nor the National Police," said Widodo.
He explained that the two suspects admitted that they were heading toward Ambon
city, address of which was yet to be known. Both men are now being held by the
water and air service and will later be handed over to the detectives division.
When asked about the origin of the weapons, Widodo said that this was not yet clear
and that the two suspects were still being interrogated.
"They were caught red-handed in possession of dangerous weapons and they will be
brought to book for that," he said.
Ambon was a scene of sectarian disturbances between 1999 and 2002 that killed
thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands of others to flee the province
for safety.
The security situation gradually returned to some semblance of normalcy after a
peace pact was signed between the warring sides in 2002 in Malino, Central
Sulawesi, but sporadic shootings and bombings still take place, prompting the
security forces to conduct regular patrols and raids. People arresting for carrying
weapons normally maintain they were doing so for self-defense.
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