The Jakarta Post, November 19, 2005
Woman murdered in fresh attack in C. Sulawesi
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
A cosmetics salesgirl was attacked and murdered on Friday morning by three
machete-wielding men in Palu, Central Sulawesi, in yet another grisly terror attack on
young females in the tense province.
Twenty-year-old Supriyanti -- Yanti to those close to her -- was attacked by three men
riding a motorcycle. She was also on a motorcycle with two friends.
Yanti's friend Anca, 23, who was driving, managed to avoid injury, while Yanti and her
friend Evi, 20, received full blows from the machetes.
Yanti suffered a fatal laceration to her neck, while Evi's arm was nearly hacked off by
the attackers.
After the men sped away, Anca took his seriously injured friends to Wirabuana
hospital, but they were not admitted as hospital personnel barred them from entering
on the grounds that "the wounds were too serious".
He later managed to get both Evi and Yanti to Undata Hospital, but Yanti died on the
way due to blood loss.
A spokesperson for the Central Sulawesi Police department, Adj. Sr. Comr. Rais
Adam, said as quoted by Antara that investigators had questioned five witnesses
about the incident and were still looking for the perpetrators.
Rais refused to speculate on whether the incident was a random street crime or
related to the other recent terror attacks in the province.
On Oct. 29, three Christian schoolgirls -- Theresia Morangke, 15, Alfita Poliwo, 17,
and Yarni Sambue, 15, -- were beheaded by a group of men with machetes as they
walked to school in Poso.
Just over a week after that attack, two female students -- Ivon Maganti, 17, and Siti
Nuraini, 17, -- were victims of a drive-by shooting while sitting in front of a house.
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko said on Friday that the police had
arrested one man named Irfan Masiro, a security guard at Poso Hospital, in relation to
the beheading case.
"We have named Irfan a suspect because we found that he owned a machete with a
bloodstain that matches one of the victim's (Theresia's) blood type," Soenarko said.
So far this is the only suspect detained in the beheading case. Irfan is one of five men
previously questioned by the local military for alleged involvement in the triple murder.
The other four were released last week due to "a lack of evidence". Despite the
release by the military, the police decided to continue questioning the group.
"We're still questioning two witnesses -- Sudarmanto and Lusiana -- because they
were actually in possession of Irfan's machete and we want to know whether they're
related to this case," Soenarko said.
As for the drive-by shooting, Soenarko claimed that the police had arrested four
suspects, identified as David Mando (a motorcycle taxi driver), Ismet Oskar (a farmer),
Zaenal (a teacher) and Aksan (a trader).
However, Soenarko did not elaborate on the what the roles of each person might have
been in the incident, as a result of which both girls are still in the hospital with serious
injuries.
Poso is a religiously divided town, which saw over 1,000 killed during a
Christian-Muslim conflict in 2000 and 2001.
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