Sudjono 'ordered killings in Bantaqiah': Witness<\/p>\n
BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): A military witness told a court here on
\nSaturday that Lt. Col. Sudjono ordered the killing of 23 wounded
\npeople after last year's murder of Tengku Bantaqiah and his
\nfollowers in West Aceh.<\/p>\n
Sudjono, who at the time was the intelligence chief of the
\nLilawangsa Military Command overseeing Aceh, has been missing
\nsince November.<\/p>\n
During a four-hour session, a panel of military and civilian
\njudges presided over by Ruslan Dahlan cross-examined four out of
\nthe 10 witnesses scheduled to present their testimonies.<\/p>\n
Second Sgt. Subur of the Central Aceh Military District
\nCommand told the panel of judges that the 23 people wounded
\nduring the shooting in Beutong Ateuh village in West Aceh last
\nyear were taken away in a military truck.<\/p>\n
\"After the shooting, two trucks were used to carry the
\nwounded. I did not count the victims properly as they were laying
\nalong the street. I got the total number of casualties (23) from
\nmy colleagues,\" Subur said.<\/p>\n
He said the victims should have been taken to Takengon, the
\ncapital of Central Aceh, for medical treatment.<\/p>\n
\"But after several kilometers, Lt. Col. Sudjono ordered one of
\nthe defendants, First Lt. Tri Joko, to take six of the injured
\nout of the truck and 'send them to school'. It literally means
\nkilling them.<\/p>\n
\"The six were taken behind a hill and I heard shots after
\nthat,\" he testified.<\/p>\n
Subur said none of the people ever reached Takengon as all of
\nthem were killed along the way.<\/p>\n
Sudjono was in charge of supervising an antirebel raid in the
\nremote Beutong Ateuh village on July 23 last year, which resulted
\nin the death of Islamic religious teacher Tengku Bantaqiah and 57
\nof his followers.<\/p>\n
The military has maintained that Bantaqiah and his students
\nwere separatist rebels and were killed during a shoot out. The
\ncrackdown was launched following an intelligence report that
\nBantaqiah and his students kept weapons.<\/p>\n
The judges were angry with Subur, who repeatedly changed part
\nof his testimony. He told the court he was standing about 300
\nmeters away from the site of the incident, not 50 meters as he
\npreviously stated in the dossier.<\/p>\n
Another witness, First Lt. Surya, testified he was informed by
\none of Bantaqiah's students caught by the military, Kamaruddin,
\nthat the Muslim teacher had 100 followers and kept 100 firearms.<\/p>\n
Surya also said he was not involved in the raid on Bantaqiah's
\nBabul Mukaromah Islamic boarding school.<\/p>\n
The third witness, First Lt. Hindarjo, said he was assigned to
\nblock the area during the operation and he heard gunfire from a
\ndistance of 10 kilometers.<\/p>\n
The trial was adjourned until Monday.<\/p>\n
Separately, Bantaqiah's second wife Man Farisah said she was
\nwilling to testify as long as she had a security guarantee.<\/p>\n
\"I witnessed almost all the incident but to my surprise I was
\nnot summoned,\" she said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels claimed
\nresponsibility for Friday's grenade attacks on military and
\npolice installations, saying they were revenge for the security
\nforces' oppression of the people.<\/p>\n
\"But we did not rob the BRI bank and attack civilian
\ninstallations,\" GAM spokesman Teungku Maad Muda said shortly
\nafter the blasts on Friday.<\/p>\n
Three people, one of whom was a policeman, were killed and 17
\nothers were injured in series of violent incidents in Aceh on
\nFriday.<\/p>\n
The two civilians were killed during a robbery in Takengon,
\nwhere a gang of unidentified men intercepted a BRI car carrying
\nRp 3.75 billion and made away with the money. (50\/51\/edt\/sur)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sudjono-ordered-killings-in-bantaqiah-witness-1447893297",
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