Ezra Sihite – Ten soldiers have been accused of assaulting several security officers at the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta.
"[They] have been named suspects," Jakarta Military Commander Erwin Hudawi Lubis said on Monday at Halim Perdana Kusuma airbase. "The ten have been questioned, and they admitted to going [to the PDI-P office]."
Erwin explained that the ten soldiers were not detained because the commander of their battalion claimed responsibility for their actions. All of them are still being interrogated at the military police unit.
"Coincidentally, they're all privates," Erwin said. "The case has been filed and is waiting to be processed. But whether it will be handed over to a military tribunal remains to be seen."
Three security guards at the PDI-P's headquarters were attacked by the soldiers on Saturday night after one of the guards tried to mediate an argument between a soldier and a student following a minor motorcycle accident.
The student proceeded to run into the PDI-P office, but was chased out. However, a few of the soldiers searched the premises and injured the guards in the process.
Two of the guards, Priyo and Marlan, were bruised while a third security officer, Yatna, suffered a head injury after being hit with a bayonet.
The personal security guards of PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri, who was a the headquarters that night, detained two of the soldiers during the attack. They later admitted that they were members of the military, and their commander, Lt. Col. Hari Darniko, arrived at the location to take the soldiers with him.
Indonesian military chief Adm. Agus Suhartono commented that the public must view the event as an isolated occurrence and not blame the institution itself. "The incident at the PDI-P office was a personal issue. It is not the army's [problem]," Agus said on Monday.
Helmy Fauzi, a member of the House of Representative's Commission I, which oversees defense, said that the scuffle at the PDI-P office was a pure crime. He added that the incident proved that the deliberation to revise the military tribunal bill should not be delayed any further.
"Those who are naughty and commit crimes should be tried before a public court," he said. "As a follow up, the Defense Ministry and the Indonesian Armed Forces [TNI] should continue deliberating the revision of the military tribunal bill with the House of Representatives."