Fri, 26 Mar 1999

10 prisoners convicted of 1965 coup attempt freed

JAKARTA (JP): The government released four aging former members of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) from Cipinang Prison in East Jakarta on Thursday.

In front of their families, dozens of journalists and head of the Jakarta office of the Ministry of Justice Hasanuddin, Abdul Latief, 72, a former Army colonel, Boengkoes, 72, a former chief sergeant, Marsudi bin Marzuki, 72, a former sergeant major, and Asep Suryaman, 73, signed a pledge of allegiance to the state ideology Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution before leaving the prison.

The 10 were released by a March 17 presidential decree.

"I am fine and happy and want to take some time off first," Latief told journalists after the ceremony.

He spent more than 33 years in jail after his death sentence was commuted to life in prison. Boengkoes, Asep and Marsudi were on death row until their release.

Asked if he would try to revise the standard view on the 1965 attempted coup, blamed on the PKI by former president Soeharto, Latief replied: "I will see how things go first ... maybe I will write a book about it but everything is already clear in my defense (in court)".

He added he was not planning to return to politics in the near future.

Latief, a father of six, claimed earlier that Soeharto knew beforehand information about the attempted coup.

Immediately after the coup, Soeharto, then an Army general, banned the PKI, second only to China as the largest communist party in the world, and all aspects of the doctrine.

Dodo Tatang Setiono, Latief's third child, told The Jakarta Post his father would stay at his family home in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta.

Boengkoes also said he wanted to spend time with his family.

"I do not have any plan at all. I am like a blind man as I have spent the last 33 years in prison, and people say that the situation has changed a lot," Boengkoes said.

"Therefore, I am asking for updates from you journalists."

Boengkoes added he would be willing to share his knowledge of the coup attempt.

"(The New Order regime's version) is not true ... the generals were not tortured, but it is true that they were dumped into the well," Boengkoes said of the notorious killing of six Army generals.

He recounted how he was summoned by the Agency for Coordination of Support for the Development of National Stability (Bakorstanas) in the early 1980s. He was informed a docudrama on the coup would be made.

"I rejected the idea from the beginning because it was not authentic," Boengkoes said.

The film, aired annually on the eve of the coup attempt's anniversary, has long been derided as blatant propaganda denouncing communism and validating Soeharto's New Order.

It was not shown last October after Soeharto's resignation in May 1998.

Minister of Justice Muladi said on Wednesday the release was "intended to speed up the process of national reconciliation ... by giving amnesty to prisoners who are serving sentences.

"They are to be released because they have shown good conduct and because of other humanitarian considerations, such as their age and deteriorating health."

Muladi said no local or international pressure led to the measure.

Representatives of political detainees and convicts have demanded a blanket release of political prisoners.

The coordinator of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners, Gustaf Dupe, was quoted by Antara as saying Thursday that it was impossible to effect reconciliation if the government practiced discrimination in granting releases. (byg)