Canadian ballistics report reveals Trisakti gun types<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Forensic ballistic experts in Canada have
\nrevealed that two bullets taken from the bodies of two students
\nand another found outside a Trisakti University building were
\nfired from SS-1 and Steyr AUG-P rifles.<\/p>\n
The bullets were recovered not long after the May 12, 1998
\nfatal shooting in which four students were killed.<\/p>\n
The result of the ballistic tests conducted by experts Mike
\nMclearn and Andy Boyle from Forensic Technologies WAI Inc. in
\nCanada was disclosed at a media conference on Monday by members
\nof a Trisakti fact-finding team.<\/p>\n
Basically, the ballistic test result was not significant
\ndifferent to the result of tests conducted earlier here by head
\nof the Trisakti investigation team, said Col. Hendardji, then
\nJakarta military police chief.<\/p>\n
About a month after the shooting, which claimed the lives of
\nfour students, Hendardji told The Jakarta Post that his team had
\nidentified the guns used in the shooting as SS-1 and Steyr AUGs.<\/p>\n
The conclusion was based on ballistic tests here by forensic
\nexperts of, among other parties, the metallurgy laboratory of the
\nBandung Institute of Technology (ITB) using a Scanning Electron
\nMicroscope to examine the rifling marks (pitch).<\/p>\n
\"Two of the bullets were found to be 5.56 mm caliber, so we
\nidentified which types of guns use this caliber,\" Hendardji said.<\/p>\n
In the media conference at the university on Monday, M. Hafiz
\nLubis, one of the three student members of the team assigned to
\nescort the three bullets to Canada for tests, said the Canadian
\nforensic ballistic expert company utilized the Integrated
\nBallistic Identification System in its analysis which helped it
\nrecognize the specifications of the bullets and the guns they
\nwere fired from.<\/p>\n
\"The company revealed that the three bullets were fired from
\nSteyr and SS-1 guns,\" Lubis said.<\/p>\n
The first two bullets, he explained, were taken from the
\nbodies of students Heri Hartanto and Hendriawan Sie, while the
\nother was found outside Gedung M building on the university's
\ncampus in Grogol, West Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Lubis and his two fellow Trisakti students left Jakarta for
\nCanada on May 17 with four other team members from the Indonesian
\nPolice central forensics laboratory (Puslabfor), the Indonesia
\nmilitary police, ITB's metallurgy laboratory and state-owned
\nPindad military equipment-maker. The team oversaw the ballistic
\ntests from May 18 to May 21.<\/p>\n
The joint team also took along 46 other bullets of similar and
\ndifferent calibers for comparison in the tests.<\/p>\n
According to Lubis, the result of the ballistic tests in
\nCanada has to be first officially endorsed by local ballistic
\nforensic experts.<\/p>\n
\"The company did not want to send two of its employees here,
\nsaying it did not want to interfere in Indonesia's internal
\nmatters,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Forensic Technologies WAI Inc. explained that the Indonesian
\nmilitary police officers had full authorization to seek
\ninformation from ballistic experts to help reveal the real
\nshooters in the incident.<\/p>\n
\"The military police here are expected to announce the result
\nof the ballistic tests (of the three bullets) by the end of June
\nat the latest,\" said Pramudya Wardhana, another team member.<\/p>\n
The examiners, he said, might involve experts from Puslabfor
\nor ITB's metallurgy laboratory.<\/p>\n
Last year, Hendardji said Puslabfor had agreed to reexamine 21
\nSS-1 and Steyr-1 AUG guns believed to have been used by troops at
\nthe scene.<\/p>\n
Last year's ballistics results had not been disclosed by the
\npolice.<\/p>\n
According to student Lubis, the bullet found outside the
\nbuilding was identified by Canadian experts Mclearn and Andy
\nBoyle as being fired from a SS1 rifle. The one taken from
\nHendriawan's body was specified as coming from a Steyr.<\/p>\n
The bullet taken from Heri's corpse came from an SS-1 rifle,
\nalthough McClearn in his first of two formal examinations said it
\ncame from a Steyr.<\/p>\n
It remains unknown why security authorities have been unable
\nto solve the May 12, 1998 shooting even though the matching of
\nbullets to guns is one of the simplest principles in forensic
\nscience.<\/p>\n
So far, only two police officers have been sent to jail for
\nthe shootings. A military tribunal stated that the two officers
\nordered their men to open fire without following proper
\nprocedures.<\/p>\n
The military's fatal shooting of students attending an anti-
\nSoeharto rally sparked a massive three-day riot in the capital.
\nFormer president Soeharto quit his post nine days later.<\/p>\n
According to the Trisakti University Students Presidium
\n(PMUT), Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Wiranto should
\nbe \"more serious\" in solving the tragedy.<\/p>\n
\"Gen. Wiranto must be responsible for finding the real
\nshooters and the mastermind of these killings, by staging a fair
\nand honest trial of the case,\" said Gunawan, PMUT spokesman, on
\nMonday. (01\/bsr)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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