ABRI urged to probe Marsinah case
ABRI urged to probe Marsinah case
SEMARANG (JP): A human rights campaigner urged the military yesterday to investigate the allegations that some of its members may have been involved in the 1993 murder of labor activist Marsinah.
Muladi, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, proposed the establishment of a special council to carry out the investigation.
It would be similar to the Officers' Honor Council that the Army formed in February to investigate the killings of East Timor civilians, said the rector of the Diponegoro University.
The military would be better off sacrificing one or two members who were involved in the killing of Marsinah rather then putting its reputation on the line, he added.
Police reopened Marsinah's murder case after the Supreme Court acquitted all nine main defendants early this month. The East Java district courts had earlier convicted them of executing the brutal murder.
Marsinah's badly mutilated body was found on May 9, 1993, only a few days after she led a workers strike at the watchmaking company in Sidoarjo, East Java, where she was working.
All nine defendants were executives and security guards of PT Citra Putra Surya, the watchmaking company.
A tenth suspect, an Army captain, was convicted as an accessory to the murder. He did not appeal and therefore his conviction remained. His superiors now plan to restore his name in light of the acquittal of the main suspects.
The National Police are now helping the East Java Police with the investigation, but so far they have not announced if they have any new suspects.
Some legal experts said investigators should look into the possibility of a local military conspiracy, especially since the military was involved in handling the company's labor disputes.
Muladi welcomed recent remarks by Army Chief of Staff Gen. R. Hartono that he would take firm action against any of his members found to have been involved in the murder.
The National Commission of Human Rights plans to help monitor the investigation, he added.
Another commission member, Satjipto Rahardjo, said the police should exclude the nine suspects who were exonerated by the Supreme Court.
"They cannot become suspects again. They certainly can testify though," said Satjipto, who is a law professor at Diponegoro University.
Another law professor at the same university, Soehardjo S.S., said one of the lessons the police should learn from this case is to tread carefully when treating criminal suspects.
"They should not use force to coerce incriminating statements out of the suspects. It could be fatal," Soehardjo said.
He said police would have saved a lot of time and resources had they paid attention to the report by the National Commission on Human Rights issued last year, when the trials of the nine defendants were still going on. The report suggested that the authorities might be prosecuting the wrong people.
In Jakarta, Chief Justice Soeryono yesterday said that as far as he was concerned, the job of the Supreme Court in the Marsinah case was completed for now with the decision to acquit the nine main suspects.
It is now up to the police and the prosecution office to bring in new suspects, Soeryono told reporters after a meeting with President Soeharto in Bina Graha. (har/emb)