ABRI to probe phone tap scandal
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto said the Armed Forces (ABRI) will immediately investigate the authenticity of the purported phone conversation between President B.J. Habibie and Attorney General Andi M. Ghalib.
"(We have to) investigate whether the telephone conversation is authentic or not," he said after opening a regular short discourse at the ABRI School of Command in Bandung, West Java, on Friday.
Wiranto said there was a possibility that the conversation, of which a transcript of a reported tapping was published recently, was "engineered".
"If the two officials' voices in the taped conversation is an product of technological engineering, we will search for the person who did it," he said.
Habibie instructed Wiranto on Thursday to launch an investigation into the conversation described as a "leakage" by Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung. It was published in the latest edition of Panji Masyarakat weekly.
Voices sounding like Habibie's and Ghalib's indicated that they were discussing the progress of investigations of two businessmen and the ongoing investigation of Soeharto.
Excerpts of the transcript appeared earlier in the lesser known Berita Keadilan tabloid in January.
"We will immediately process and question all sides that should be held responsible for the leakage," Wiranto said.
Habibie ordered cabinet ministers and other senior government officials to step up alertness following the publication.
"Alertness must be boosted by state officials and intelligence apparatus," Minister of Justice Muladi quoted the President as saying during their meeting at Merdeka Palace.
The minister said the tapping of any phone conversation was against 1964 telecommunications Law No. 5, and the Nairobi Convention in 1982 which categorizes such actions as crimes.
"If I am not mistaken, (the person responsible for) such a violation may be sentenced to up to five years," Muladi said after meeting with the President.
Suhandoyo, chief spokesman for the attorney general, said Friday his office was still studying the 1946 law on individuals or institutions which disseminated untruthful information.
Ghalib has insisted the voice in the recordings is not his, and that he could not recall ever making such a conversation with Habibie.
Meanwhile Antara quoted National Police Chief Gen. Roesmanhadi as saying in Manado, North Sulawesi, that there was a possibility that employees of state-owned PT Telkom were involved in the reported tapping of the conversation.
In Jakarta, police questioned on Friday Uni Zulfiani Lubis, Panji's acting chief editor, for four hours over the publication of the transcript.
Uni said she was picked up by four police officers at her office on Jl. Kemang Raya Selatan, South Jakarta at 3:30 p.m. and arrived at the National Police headquarters at 4 p.m.
Uni, whose official position is deputy general manager, said; "I have been Panji's acting chief editor since Sinansari Ecip became non-active early this month."
She said she was grilled by police on the recordings.
"In accordance with the journalistic code of ethics, I refused to name the source of the recordings," she said, adding that before the publication, her office had received telephone calls which urged against publication of the supposed recordings.
Uni, accompanied by noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis in the questioning, said she had also asked the weekly's reporters to be extra alert over the publication of the recordings.
Todung said a suspect has yet to be named in the investigation, while his client was a witness.
He said the summons was based on Article 15 and 16 of Law No. 1/1946 on dissemination of untruthful information.
The chairman of the Protection Committee for Indonesian Journalists (KPWI), Haris Jauhari, criticized police for picking up Uni and for failing to send a prior summons. (rms/jun/43)