Police 'didn't use live ammunition at Trisakti'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The mystery of who fired the fatal shots in the
\nMay 12 death of four Trisakti University students slowly began to
\nunfold yesterday when the National Commission on Human Rights
\nsaid police did not use live ammunition.<\/p>\n
\"The commission has obtained strong indications that the
\npolice... did not use live ammunition,\" commission member Djoko
\nSoegianto told journalists here yesterday.<\/p>\n
A statement read by the commission's secretary-general,
\nBaharuddin Lopa, said the commission also suspected that a number
\nof people had remained missing since the incident.<\/p>\n
The commission, however, failed to elaborate on either of its
\nfindings.<\/p>\n
It was not reluctant to point out that several witnesses to
\nthe incident had been threatened and now refused to give
\ntestimony, originally slated for Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\"They were threatened by unidentified people forbidding them
\nto give testimony to anyone,\" the statement said.<\/p>\n
The commission, therefore, urged the special military
\ninvestigating team to the Trisakti incident to guarantee the
\nstudents' safety.<\/p>\n
The threats are clearly hampering the investigation and
\nimpeding the search for the truth behind the shootings, it said
\nadding that with their testimony further light could be shed on
\nwho exactly fired the fatal shots against the students and how
\nthe whole incident transpired into the tragedy that it did.<\/p>\n
Minister of Defense and Security\/Armed Forces Commander Gen.
\nWiranto said on May 15 that the special military team set up to
\ninvestigate the shootings found that security forces had used
\nlive ammunition.<\/p>\n
Wiranto revealed Monday that 14 Armed Forces personnel had
\nbeen implicated in the shootings. But he refused to reveal their
\nidentities, adding only that \"a few members from another unit\"
\nwere also found to have taken \"non-procedural and undisciplined
\naction\" during the incident.<\/p>\n
Four demonstrators were killed when shots were fired as
\nstudents from Trisakti University held a pro-reform demonstration
\nin front of their campus. Both police and military personnel were
\nassigned to handle the demonstration.<\/p>\n
The incident triggered widespread riots and looting in Jakarta
\nleaving some 500 dead and causing over Rp 2.5 trillion in
\nmaterial losses.<\/p>\n
Besides the death of four students, the commission said three
\nothers -- economics students Ferro Prasetya and Tammu Abraham
\nAlexander Bulo and geology student Sofyan Rahman -- were
\nseriously wounded and remained in the hospital.<\/p>\n
A crisis team set up by Djuanda University said nine students
\nremained missing following a bloody clash between students and
\nsecurity forces at the university campus in Bogor, West Java, on
\nMay 9.<\/p>\n
A report from the team submitted to the commission Saturday
\nsaid three students were still being detained following the
\nclash.<\/p>\n
The incident resulted in the death of a police officer who was
\nkilled after repeated blows to the head. (byg)<\/p>",
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