KUCHING: Five Malaysians were reported to have been allegedly kidnapped by heavily armed Indonesian soldiers on the Sarawak side of the border and taken to Kalimantan.
It certainly appears that the Indonesian soldiers had encroached into Malaysian territory.
Media reports actually said the five locals aged between 15 and 64 were collecting wood in the vicinity of Kampung Danau Melikin, some 400m from the border, when they were confronted by their kidnappers.
They were held hostage at gunpoint, accused of theft and roughed up. Later, two were ordered home but expected to come up with ransom money in return for the release of their comrades.
Strangely, this did not happen just yesterday. It happened on Dec 11 but news only leaked out when the New Straits Times splashed a nine-paragraph story of the Sarawakians’ ordeal yesterday, 13 days after their harrowing experience.
How could the five men be stealing wood belonging to Indonesia when they were 400m inside Sarawak? Why were these soldiers behaving like bandits?
A “line of communication” was then set up with the Indone-sians to negotiate for the release of the remaining hostages, reported the NST.
Malaysians, Sarawakians especially, are wondering what actually happened.
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