LAKSAMANA.Net, December 10, 2003 03:42 PM
Soldiers Attack Police, One Killed
Laksamana.Net - Indonesia’s notoriously undisciplined and violent security forces
have been at it again, this time with soldiers and police shooting each other in West
Kalimantan province during a dispute over a traffic accident.
One soldier was shot dead in the incident, which took place on Tuesday (9/12/03)
evening in Mempawah town, about 65 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital
Pontianak.
The clash occurred after a soldier was hit by a public bus. The bus driver surrendered
to local police, who refused to hand him over to angry soldiers.
Troops initially vented their anger by throwing stones at the local police station, but
the fracas later degenerated into a gunfight. In addition to one soldier being shot dead,
at least one policeman and another soldier were injured, while the police station was
left badly damaged. The shooting stopped after a commander arrived at the scene.
Soldiers and police have often clashed across Indonesia since the two underfunded
forces were separated in 1999. Much of the violence has been attributed to arguments
over the control of illegal businesses, such as prostitution, drug trafficking, extortion
rackets and illegal logging.
Under the regime of former president Suharto, police were subordinate to the military.
After Suharto was forced to resign in 1998, the police force was made independent
and tasked to deal with crime, while military was relegated to the less lucrative role of
defending the nation from foreign attacks.
On December 4, a soldier and a policeman were injured in a gunfight in Palopo town,
South Sulawesi province. Prior to the shootout, soldiers had beaten up two policemen
at a bus station.
The violence was apparently a continuation of a skirmish that erupted on November 21
between soldiers and policemen in Palopo. The clash, which left one soldier injured,
started during an argument at a local market.
Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) commander General Endriartono Sutarto responded
to the Palopo shootout by saying: “Once in a while it is okay… If our society is sick,
then our troops are sick too.”
On May 22, a policeman was killed and another injured when a soccer game between
police and soldiers ended in a brawl in Ende city, Flores island, East Nusa Tenggara
province.
In early February, two policemen were attacked by drunken soldiers in Dumai town,
Riau province. The clash was sparked by an earlier brawl between thugs and soldiers
in a red-light district about 15 kilometers from Dumai.
Over September 30-October 1, 2002, five policemen, two civilians and one soldier
were killed in Binjai, North Sumatra province, when members of the Army's airborne
division used firearms, grenades and mortars to attack a Brimob paramilitary police
station. The attack was triggered by the arrest of a civilian friend of the soldiers for
possession of a substantial quantity of marijuana.
Military tribunals in December 2002 sentenced 19 soldiers involved in the attack to jail
terms ranging from five months to two and a half years.
There have been at least 11 similar clashes between the two forces since January
2001, in areas including Ambon (Maluku province), Sampit (Central Kalimantan
province), Jambi province, Aceh province, Papua province, Palu (Central Sulawesi
province), Madiun (East Java province), Simalungun (North Sumatra) and Bogor, south
of Jakarta.
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