Ex-Bakin chief grilled over July 27 incident<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Former chief of the State Intelligence
\nCoordinating Board (Bakin) Moetojib denied on Tuesday that a
\nministerial meeting which had been held on July 1996 had planned
\na violent takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
\nheadquarters two days later.<\/p>\n
\"The mood of the meeting never reflected that an attack was
\nbeing planned on the headquarters,\" Moetojib said echoing a line
\nof former military and government officials who had also been
\nquestioned in the past two weeks over the same attack.<\/p>\n
Moetojib was speaking to reporters after being grilled for
\nabout five hours by a joint military\/police team over the
\nincident.<\/p>\n
As reported earlier, a ministerial coordination meeting on
\npolitics and security affairs was held two days before the bloody
\nattack which concluded that the ongoing free speech forum at the
\nheadquarters should be stopped since it had disturbed public
\norder.<\/p>\n
However, Moetojib said that the forum was intended to be
\nstopped through persuasion.<\/p>\n
The free speech forum was being held at the headquarters on
\nJl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta, on a daily basis by followers of
\nthe party's chairperson, now incumbent Vice President, Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri.<\/p>\n
The forum was stopped when a mob, backed by elements from the
\nthen Armed Forces (ABRI), violently attacked the headquarters on
\nJuly 27 that year.<\/p>\n
The action, which involved supporters of a PDI splinter group,
\nled by Soerjadi, left five dead -- according to the official
\nrecord -- with 23 others reportedly still missing and triggered
\nmassive unrest in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
When being asked by reporters about who had been responsible
\nfor the attack, Moetajib said, \"Ask (the then) chief of the
\nJakarta Military Command and (the then) Jakarta Police chief
\nabout that.\"<\/p>\n
Lt. Gen. (ret) Sutiyoso, currently the Jakarta Governor, and
\nInsp. Gen. Hamami Nata were chief of the Jakarta Military Command
\nand Jakarta Police chief respectively when the incident occurred.<\/p>\n
\"You know that the chain of command is vertical, not
\nhorizontal,\" Moetajib said.<\/p>\n
However, Moetajib refused to confirm whether the direction to
\nattack the headquarters had come from then Indonesian Armed
\nForces (ABRI) chief Gen. (ret) Feisal Tanjung. (jaw)<\/p>",
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