Seven Die As Troops Attack Police

Seven people were killed and dozens injured when Indonesian soldiers repeatedly attacked two police stations in north Sumatra after detectives refused to release a soldier's friend detained on drug charges.

Four police officers, one soldier and two passersby died in the weekend carnage in the town of Binjai, 900 miles north-west of the capital, Jakarta.

One police station was razed to the ground and the other badly damaged, vehicles were burned or vandalised, and 61 prisoners escaped after their police guards ran to help their besieged colleagues.

Army commanders admitted responsibility for the attacks by several dozen troops and promised to prosecute those responsible.

A police spokesman, Senior Commander Amrin Karim, said: "The police were just doing their job and paid a heavy price for it. We cannot understand why the soldiers would act like that."

The first attack occurred on Saturday night after detectives rejected an army private's pleas that his friend, who had been detained earlier on suspicion of committing drug offences, should be released.

The incensed private returned to the police station with some heavily armed colleagues and shot off the senior detective's ear. Several other police officers were injured.

The soldiers attacked again on Sunday. The main police office was vandalised and the headquarters of the local paramilitary unit destroyed.

Indonesia's chief of armed forces, General Endriartono Sutarto, ordered the army chief, General Ryamizard Ryacudu, to begin an immediate investigation and take action against the perpetrators.

"Don't worry, we will get to the bottom of this and punish everyone who acted beyond their authority," he said. "If necessary we will dissolve the battalion involved."

Indonesia's police and military are chronically underfunded and run a variety of businesses and protection rackets to augment their meagre official budget. They clash regularly, particularly when their fund-raising activities overlap.