Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Police are still conducting invstigations to find the main perpetrators of the Atambua and Maumere riots in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and have sof ar named 12 people suspects, National Police Deputy Chief Comm. Gen. Adang Daradjatun has said.
"Police have detained the 12 suspects," Adang said before attending a hearing with the House of Representatives` Commission III (security affairs) here on Tuesday morning.
He said of the 12, nine were suspects in the Attambua riot and three in the Maumere riot.
"They were named supects based on testimonies of witnesses who saw them inciting people," he said.
The witnesses included inmates of Atambua prison who saw the suspects provoking people to break down the jail and urge prisoners to escape.
Police spokesman Insp Gen Paulus Purwoko said meanwhile police did not feel that the Attambua and Maumere riots had happened becasue they had not been alert enough.
He said the local police actually knew that there would be strong reaction from certain segments of the people against the execution of Tibo and his friends in Palu, Central Sulawesi. But unfortunately, the police were uneble to foresee the strength or extent of the reaction.
He said that the strong reaction was due to emotional ties between them and Tibo and his friends. "Police detected the possibility of their reaction so that we gathered religious leaders," he said.
Death row convicts Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marianus Riwu, blamed for inciting deadly violence in the Central Sulawesi town of Poso, where about 200 people were killed in 2001, were executed by a firing squad early Friday morning on September 22.
Following the execution, sympathizers of the trio went amuck in Maumera and Atambu vadalizing public facilities and breaking down the Atambua jail enabling many of its inmates to flee.(*)
"Police have detained the 12 suspects," Adang said before attending a hearing with the House of Representatives` Commission III (security affairs) here on Tuesday morning.
He said of the 12, nine were suspects in the Attambua riot and three in the Maumere riot.
"They were named supects based on testimonies of witnesses who saw them inciting people," he said.
The witnesses included inmates of Atambua prison who saw the suspects provoking people to break down the jail and urge prisoners to escape.
Police spokesman Insp Gen Paulus Purwoko said meanwhile police did not feel that the Attambua and Maumere riots had happened becasue they had not been alert enough.
He said the local police actually knew that there would be strong reaction from certain segments of the people against the execution of Tibo and his friends in Palu, Central Sulawesi. But unfortunately, the police were uneble to foresee the strength or extent of the reaction.
He said that the strong reaction was due to emotional ties between them and Tibo and his friends. "Police detected the possibility of their reaction so that we gathered religious leaders," he said.
Death row convicts Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marianus Riwu, blamed for inciting deadly violence in the Central Sulawesi town of Poso, where about 200 people were killed in 2001, were executed by a firing squad early Friday morning on September 22.
Following the execution, sympathizers of the trio went amuck in Maumera and Atambu vadalizing public facilities and breaking down the Atambua jail enabling many of its inmates to flee.(*)
Copyright © 2006 ANTARA
September 26, 2006