Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Ada Apa di Balik Keinginan Gubernur soal Koopskam

Pernyataan Gubernur Sulawesi Tengah, Mayor Jenderal (pur) Bandjela Paliudju yang memintan agar operasi pemulihan keamanan di Poso yang akan berakhir Juli nanti agar tidak diperpanjang, mendapat tanggapan berbeda dari sejumlah kalangan di Sulawesi Tengah.

Koordinator Ad-Hoc Kontras Sulawesi, Edmond Leonardo mempertanyakan dasar permintaan Gubernur Sulawesi Tengah soal tidak diperpanjangnya operasi pemulihan keamanan di bawah kendali Komando Operasi Keamanan (Koopskam) Sulteng itu.

"Apakah gubernur telah melakukan evaluasi terhadap kinerja koopskam selama ini?," kata Edmond Leonardo, Rabu (30/5) siang.

Jika hasil evaluasi itu sudah dilakukan dan ternyata kinerja Koopskam negatif, maka tak ada jalan lain kecuali memang tidak lagi diperpanjang. Namun kalau evaluasi kinerja Koopskam ternyata positif, maka patut dipertanyakan ada apa di balik pernyataan Gubernur Sulteng itu.

"Jangan sampai permintaan gubernur itu didasari pada sentimen kesatuan antara TNI dan Polri. Koopskam kan dipimpin oleh kepolisian, sementara gubernur adalah purnawirawan TNI berpangkat terakhir Mayor Jenderal," tegas Edmond Leonardo.

Menurut Edmond Leonardo, permintaan tidak dilanjutkannya operasi pemulihan keamanan itu, berkaitan erat soal konsep pemerintah daerah dalam upaya penanganan dan penyelesaian kasus kerusuhan Poso.

Selama ini, Pemerintah Provinsi Sulawesi Tengah tidak memilikui konsep yang jelas dalam penanganan Poso. Visi misi pemerintah daerah untuk memulihkan keamanan di Sulteng, justru sangat tidak jelas.

Oleh karena itu, Edmond Leonardo menyatakan agar Pemerintah Provinsi Sulteng menjelaskan kepada publik soal konsep yang tepat untuk penanganan Poso.

Soraya Sultan, koordinator Poso Center berpendapat lain. Di tempat berbeda, aktivis perempuan ini menyatakan Koopskam memang tidak terlalu penting lagi untuk dilanjutkan.

Pernyataan itu lebih dilihat dari adanya beberapa kasus Poso justru tidak ada tindaklanjutnya yang jelas, misalnya kasus bom Maesa akhir Desember 2005, kasus keterlibatan seorang perwira menengah polisi dalam kasus dua siswi SMK Poso, yakni Ivon Nathalia dan Siti Nuraini.

"Kasus itu kan belum jelas tindaklanjutnya. Jadi memang, Koopskam itu tidak penting lagi dipertahankan. Kalau sudah selesai masa tugasnya, ya sudah selesai saja dan dibubarkan," tegas Soraya Sultan.

Sebagai solusinya, Soraya Sultan mengatakan, pengamanan Poso dikembalikan kepada intitusi keamanan di daerah, Polda Sulteng dan Polres Khusus Poso. Kemudian, segera membentuk Tim Gabungan Pencari Fakta (TGPF) Independen yang disahkan oleh Presiden.

Oleh karena itu, Poso Center merencanakan akan melakukan sharing dan evaluasi kinerja Koopskam selama masa tugasnya di Sulawesi Tengah.

Sementara itu, Ketua Sinode Gereja Kristen Sulawesi Tengah, Pendeta Rinaldy Damanik mengatakan, jika operasi pemulihan keamanan yang di bawah kendali Koopskam itu tidak diperpanjang lagi, maka Pemerintah Provinsi Sulteng harus sudah memiliku solusi yang
tepat untuk penuntasan kasus Poso.

"Jika koopskam tidak diperpanjang, apa solusinya. Apakah gubernur sudah memikirkan itu. Apa program ke depan untuk penanganan poso. gubernur harus melihat secara objectif, sejauh mana hasil kinerja Koopskam selama ini," tegas Damanik.

Gubernur Bandjela Paliudju di Istana Wakil Presiden menyatakan bahwa operasi pemulihan keamanan di Poso yang akan berakhir Juli nanti agar tidak dilanjutkan
mengingat kondisi keamanan di Poso sudah membaik.***

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Tibo to be taken for reconstruction

Ruslan Sangadji
The Jakarta Post
Palu, Central Sulawesi

Police will immediately stage a reconstruction of the killings in a riot in Sintuwu Lembah village in Poso regency which occurred between 2000 to 2001 involving three death-row convicts in the controversial Poso riot case Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva.

"We will bring them to Poso for a reconstruction of the crime next week," Central Sulawesi Police chief Oegroseno said Friday, without specifying a date.

Oegroseno was hopeful that with the reconstruction the police would find out who were involved in the crime and reveal the masterminds behind the violence in which 2,000 people were killed.

The provincial police are now coordinating with the local prosecutor's office and are asking the cooperation of the public to make the reconstruction a success.

Oegroseno said the reconstruction would automatically postpone the convicts' executions. "We're doing it for the sake of upholding the law and to accommodate people's demands to resolve earlier cases," asserted Oegroseno.

The provincial police are also in the midst of exhuming a number of mass graves discovered due to a confession of Herry Mengkawa, who was convicted in the Poso riot case and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. ***

Friday, May 12, 2006

Woman recalls murder of family in Poso massacre

Ruslan Sangadji
The Jakarta Post, Poso

As authorities on Wednesday excavated a suspected mass grave containing victims of a 2000 massacre in Poso, Rusdiati Arifin cried out in anguish when police removed clothes she said belonged to one of her murdered children.

The clothes were discovered in the grave near Tambaro village in Lage district, Poso.

"These are the shirt and pants of my child. But where are my other children and my husband and my other relatives? Where were they buried. Why aren't their clothes here?" she asked.

Rusdiati relived the horrible day of the massacre for journalists. It was May 28, 2000, when the electricity in the Muslim village was cut amid a heavy downpour.

Gunshots were heard from all directions and then the attackers, armed Christian militia members, began burning down the houses in the village. She said all of the houses were destroyed, including the Wali Songo Muslim boardinghouse.

All of the men, women and children from the village were gathered in a nearby field and their hands tied, Rusdiati recalled.

All of the sharp weapons in the village, including agricultural tools, were confiscated by the attackers, who wore headbands. The residents were then led to a river about two kilometers away.

"At the river we were separated. My husband, three children and five other relatives were killed. My youngest child, Yudi Arifin, who was in the third grade, was also killed. They were all killed in front of my eyes," she said, clutching and kissing the clothes pulled from the grave.

Police were led to the mass grave Wednesday based on information provided by three Christian men on death row for their roles in the religious violence in Poso -- Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus Da Silva and Marinus Riwu.

Meanwhile, the Central Sulawesi High Court has isolated the three death-row convicts after the Supreme Court rejected their second appeal, an official said Thursday.

The execution by firing squad of the three men will be carried out soon, the head of the high court, Yahya Sibe, said. He added that relatives of the condemned were allowed to visit the men briefly before they were isolated.

"We are just settling the final technical details .... After that we will ask the police to execute the death sentences as soon as possible," he said.

After visiting with the condemned, all of the family members refused comment to journalists.

The three men were sentenced to death by the Palu District Court in 2001 for their roles in the deaths of hundreds of Muslims during the conflict in 2000.

Speaking Tuesday after the Supreme Court rejected the convicts' second appeal, lawyers for the three said the ruling was "an insult to the people's sense of justice", and promised to take the case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The justices hearing the appeal, Djoko Sarwoko, Marianna Sutadi, Timur P. Manurung, Arifin A. Tumpa and Paulus Effendi Lotulung, handed down a unanimous verdict after considering the case for less than a month.

Unless new evidence comes to light, the convicts have no further recourse for appeals and the decision when to execute them now rests with government prosecutors.

Their other avenue for appeal -- a plea for clemency from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- was rejected late last year.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Police claim arrested men are Noordin's accomplices

National News - May 08, 2006

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Palu, Central Sulawesi

Two of the five men arrested Friday night in Tolitoli regency, Central Sulawesi, were accomplices of Noordin M. Top, one of Asia's most wanted terror suspects, police said Sunday.

Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Oegroseno said the two were members of Noordin's network and are believed to have provided Noordin with safe harbor in Semarang, Central Java.

The five -- Apriyantono, alias Irwan, Arman, alias Haris, Asrudin, Nano and Abdul Muis -- were picked up by police antiterror unit Detachment 88 late Friday after an investigation into their activities and possible links to Noordin's network.

The police also confiscated evidence in the raid, such as two bullets, a compact disc and books on jihad.

However, Oegroseno declined to identify the two men who are thought to be accomplices of Noordin.

"I can't tell you which two of them, but we believe they have close links to Noordin," he told The Jakarta Post, adding that the five men had moved to Tolitoli only about three months ago.

Ogroseno said police were still questioning the five suspects.

The police were expected to take them to the National Police headquarters in Jakarta soon for cross-examination with a number of men who were captured in Wonosobo, Central Java, during an April 29 antiterror raid on a house thought to be Noordin's hideout.

Locals said the five men arrested in Tolitoli had passed themselves off as breadmakers and even reported to the community head as soon as they arrived at the regency, thus raising no suspicions.

Local neighborhood head Asmad Jafara said the police had asked him for assistance in spying on the five before they were arrested.

Asmad said the five did not resist arrest as police dragged them into a car to take them to an unidentified location.

Asrudin was the first to be arrested, when several plainclothes policemen tried to buy snacks from him.

After questioning Asrudin, the antiterror unit later raided a rented house in Nalu regency, in urban Tolitoli, and picked up the other four.

Asrudin's wife, Salma, said she had been told by the police about the arrest.

"The police said my husband was arrested based on information that he had allegedly been involved in terror activities and the murder of a soldier's wife," she said.

Salma, who has maintained her husband's innocence, said the five men had only been in Tolitoli for three months, selling snacks and crackers. She said they moved there from Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi, where they had worked as seasonal laborers.

The arrests were the latest since the Wonosobo raid, in which two terror suspects were shot dead and two others captured alive.

The house was suspected to be the place where Noordin and his accomplices were preparing for another terror attack. Explosive materials and instructional books on bomb-making were seized.

Noordin escaped arrest, however.

Antiterror police officer attacked in Poso

National News - May 09, 2006

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Poso, Central Sulawesi

An unidentified member of the police antiterror unit detachment 88 was wounded in a mob attack Monday when he together with a fellow officer in an operation to arrest Taufik Badahu for his alleged involvement in a series of violence acts in Poso, an officer said.

Poso Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Rudi Sufahriyadi said that during the operation, Taufik who had just finished morning prayers at the local mosque, resisted arrest.

Several local residents who witnessed the arrest attempt cried for help and banged electricity poles to attract the attention of people in the community.

About 100 people ran out of their homes and attacked the policemen, wounding one of them, while Taufik escaped.

The police officer was rushed to Poso General Hospital, while the mob set fire to the two police motorcycles.

Rudi said that he could not give details of the chronology of the attack as officers were still investigating the case.

"I don't have the authority to give further comments. The antiterror unit is authorized to give a statement. As of now we are still investigating the incident," Rudi said.

The situation in Poso was still tense as of Monday afternoon as Taufik's family members and other neighbors had not dispersed. They demanded an explanation for the arrest of Taufik.

Meanwhile, Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Oegroseno denied his earlier statements that five residents arrested by the antiterror police in the Central Sulawesi city of Tolitoli on Friday had links with fugitive terrorist Noordin M. Top.

He said that police initially thought that two of the five people arrested were working with Noordin, but it was later proven that the two were just involved in criminal activities in Central Sulawesi.

"I want to clarify again that the five people arrested in Tolitoli were not Noordin's subordinates. They were just involved in a number of violence acts in Poso and Palu," Oegroseno said.

He further explained that the five were still under police detention at the Central Sulawesi Police Headquarters. They will be transferred to the National Police Headquarters for further questioning, he said.

The five arrested in Tolitoli were identified as Aprianto alias Irwan, Arman alias Haris, Nano, Asruddin and Abdul Muis. ***