Two generals to sue media for slander<\/p>\n
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Two active Army Generals are filing lawsuits against a number of
\nlocal, national, and even international media for defamation,
\nclaiming what they call libelous news reporting.<\/p>\n
Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and Lt. Gen. Djadja Suparman vowed
\nFriday to bring to court several media establishments for
\nsuggesting that they were behind a number of crimes in the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
Four-star Army Gen. Endriartono, who is also the Indonesian
\nmilitary (TNI) chief, told the press here on Friday that he would
\nsoon file a lawsuit against U.S.-based The Washington Post for
\nreporting in its Nov. 2 edition that he ordered the bloody August
\nambush on two buses near the PT Freeport mining company in Papua.
\nAt least three persons, including two Americans, were killed and
\ndozens other injured in the attack TNI blamed on a poorly-
\norganized secessionist movement.<\/p>\n
Endriartono said the American newspaper had published a lie as
\nhe had never planned nor discussed the ambush against Freeport
\nemployees.<\/p>\n
\"I will file a law suit and ask for US$1 billion as
\ncompensation from the newspaper. If I win, I will donate the
\nmoney to victims of the ambush,\" Endriartono said.<\/p>\n
He said he has yet to decide when and where to register the
\ncase, in Indonesia or in the United States, saying that he was
\nstill trying to find out who had provided such slanderous
\ninformation.<\/p>\n
Endriartono also said that he had summoned both the U.S. and
\nAustralian ambassadors in Indonesia to ask for clarification
\nabout the report, and learned that they too did not know from
\nwhere the intelligence information quoted by the newspaper came.<\/p>\n
Three-star Army Gen. Djaja, on the other hand, is planning to
\nsue up to ten local and national media establishments over
\nreports suggesting that he was behind the Oct. 12 Bali bomb
\nblasts that killed approximately 190 people and injured over 300
\nothers, mostly foreigners. He, however, mentioned only two media
\noutfits -- Denpasar-based Radar Bali, and Surabaya-based Jawa
\nPos.<\/p>\n
Djaja said he was still gathering data on several regional
\nnewspapers that had implicated him in the Bali bombing case.<\/p>\n
\"I am serious about my lawsuit. It will also be a lesson for
\nunprofessional newspapers,\" said Djadja, who is also commander of
\nthe Bandung-based Military Staff and Commander School.<\/p>\n
Djadja, who is former commander of the Army's Strategic
\nReserve Command (Kostrad), said that the reports of some regional
\nnewspapers were often full of libel.<\/p>\n
A few local and national newspapers reported in mid-October
\nthat police investigators were looking into possible involvement
\nof two generals -- one still on active military duty, and the
\nother a retired police officer -- in the Bali bomb blasts,
\nconsidered the worst terrorist attacks after the Sept. 11 attacks
\nin Washington D.C. and New York City.<\/p>\n
Earlier, former TNI chief and former Coordinating Minister for
\nPolitical and Security Affairs Gen. (ret.) Wiranto sued Jawa Pos
\ndaily for publishing a statement by University of Indonesia
\nsociologist Thamrin Amal Tomagola that Wiranto, along with two
\nother Army generals, were masterminding the religious conflict in
\nAmbon which has killed over 5,000 people since January 1999.<\/p>\n
Wiranto, however, won the case, with the Cibinong State Court
\nordering Jawa Pos and Tomagola to apologize and to pay a fine
\ntotaling Rp 50 million.<\/p>\n
In a separate case, former president Soeharto, also a retired
\nArmy general, filed a lawsuit against Time magazine for alleging
\nthat the Soeharto family had transferred billions of US dollars
\nto a secret offshore bank account. Soeharto, however, lost the
\ncase.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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