ABRI 'must reveal truth behind riots'

ABRI 'must reveal truth behind riots'

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie told top brass in the
Armed Forces (ABRI) to dig out the truth over allegations that
"an organized group" was behind recent riots.

Addressing a meeting of 151 high-ranking ABRI officials at the
State Presidential Palace yesterday, Habibie said the Armed
Forces headquarters should conduct a thorough investigation and
clarify the issue.

"I particularly ask the Armed Forces leadership to reveal the
truth over allegations that an organized group was seen inciting
people to burn and loot buildings in several areas where
disturbances occurred," Habibie said.

Opposition leader Amien Rais told a gathering of 2,000
Chinese-Indonesians in Surakarta, Central Java, on Wednesday that
the riots which hit Jakarta and Surakarta in the middle of last
month were not spontaneous.

"There were people who masterminded the riots in Jakarta and
Solo (Surakarta)," he said.

Calls for an immediate government investigation into the mid-
May unrest have also come from the Coordinating Body for National
Unity (Bakom PKB) and the Indonesian New Brotherhood Association
(Persabi).

"The government must conduct an investigation into the mid-May
riots, find the provocateurs and announce the results of the
investigation," Rosita S. Noer, a Bakom PKB leader, said
Wednesday.

"If the government fails to clarify what happened, Bakom PKB
will invite an international human rights organization to conduct
the investigation," she added.

Meanwhile, Persabi asked the government to conduct a thorough
investigation into the riots.

President Habibie said he understood that the Armed Forces
Headquarters resources and personnel had been overstretched by
the massive unrest.

"The Armed Forces Headquarters should therefore draw on the
people's support, as stipulated in the security and defense
Sishankamrata doctrine," he said.

Official military reports said the death toll from the four
days of riots reached 499 in Greater Jakarta alone.

The National Commission on Human Rights, however, came up with
a figure which was more then twice as high. The rights commission
announced last week that at least 1,188 people were killed during
the riots.

Separately, Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces
Commander Gen. Wiranto declined to comment on Amien's
allegations.

"It's better that I do not respond to such allegations when
they are made as an open statement to newspapers because it will
only as it will only create more speculation," he told reporters
after chairing a military leadership meeting at the Armed Forces
Cilangkap headquarters late yesterday afternoon.

"ABRI is open to inputs from anybody, but such tenuous
allegations should not have been published in newspapers," he
said.

However, he guaranteed that the Armed Forces Headquarters
would conduct an investigation.

Wiranto dismissed speculation that the Armed Forces itself was
behind the riots as a means of regaining their grip of security
and order in the nation, a grip which prior to the riots had been
strongly challenged by anti-government student demonstrations.

"It has never been Armed Forces' strategy to politically
engineer a situation at the expense of peace and people's
welfare," he said.

During yesterday's briefing, President Habibie, in his
capacity as ABRI supreme commander, warned that riot victims had
become a sensitive issue, not only in Indonesia, but also among
the international community.

"Human rights are no longer an issue that should be
suppressed. They have now become a universal catalyst for state
progress," Habibie said.

"I hope that ABRI leaders will continue to learn ... the
various United Nations human rights pacts which we will gradually
ratify," Habibie noted. (prb/imn)