10 prisoners convicted of 1965 coup attempt freed

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)