The Jakarta Globe, June 20, 2012
Police announced on Wednesday that they had named 11 men as suspects in a violent clash that killed one person and left 11 others wounded in Riau Islands’ Batam.
The clash on Monday pitted two groups of youths at the Planet Holiday Hotel in Batam and is believed to have involved gangs hired by businesses to provide security services.
The two gangs were respectively led by T.F. and B.
“The B group engaged in slashing and beating up, while the T.F. group took part in damaging the hotel’s glass panels. T.F. is now a wanted man because he led the group, while B is among the suspects. B also engaged in torture and stabbing,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said in Jakarta on Wednesday
He said that from the B group there were six suspects, including B himself, while the other five came from the T.F. group.
Police have so far arrested 28 people from the B group and eight from the T.F. group.
Police say the clash was prompted by a verdict of the Batam District Court on June 14 that was in favor of L.E., a company disputing a 3.7-hectare plot of land in Batam that was also claimed by another company, H.E.
H.E. had commissioned the T.F. group to safeguard the plot of land, but L.E. later claimed legal ownership of the land, with the court ruling in the latter’s favor. L.E. commissioned the B group to secure the land immediately after the verdict was issued.
The T.F. group was angry at being shooed off the land and went to the hotel because some members of the B group were also security members there.
They vandalized and damaged the from of the hotel’s glass paneling, but members of the B group quickly regrouped and responded with violence.
BeritaSatu/JG
wo 20 jun 2012 - 23:00