Aceh rights abuse suspect missing after vacation
Aceh rights abuse suspect missing after vacation
JAKARTA (JP): Officials here revealed that the key missing
witness in the prosecution of alleged human rights abuses in Aceh
is actually a suspect who disappeared after obtaining permission
to go on vacation.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman on Monday identified the
suspect as Lt. Col. Sudjono.
"(Sudjono) is a suspect and (his whereabouts) are still being
investigated by the TNI (Indonesian Military) chief," Marzuki
told reporters.
"(Sudjono) was here in Jakarta when he was being investigated,
but when he was summoned, he disappeared," he added.
An independent commission investigating human rights abuses in
Aceh identified Sudjono, by initials "Lt. Col. Sdjn," as among
the officers allegedly involved in the murder of Islamic boarding
school teacher Tengku Bantaqiah and dozens of students in West
Aceh.
The lieutenant-colonel was listed as intelligence chief of the
Lhokseumawe-based Lilawangsa military command.
Troops allegedly shot dead Bantaqiah, his wife, his students
and dozens of farmers in an anti-rebel raid in the remote Beutong
area, some 100 kilometers south of Lhokseumawe on July 23.
Local military officers maintain Bantaqiah and his students,
believed to be allies of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), were
killed in an exchange of fire.
Witnesses and the government-sanctioned inquiry said, however,
that the killings were executed by military troops.
The Beutong shooting is among five human rights cases in Aceh
focused on by the inquiry in its investigation of alleged human
rights abuses in the restive province.
Military Police Chief Maj. Gen. Djasri Marin in December said
the highest ranked officer among the suspects due to be tried in
a joint military-civilian court was a lieutenant-colonel.
Minister of Human Rights Affairs Hasballah M. Saad said on
Sunday the impending trial of rights abuses in Aceh, due to start
later this month, is delayed due to the disappearance of a "key
witness."
In Medan, North Sumatra, Bukit Barisan military command
spokesman Lt. Col. Nurdin Sulistyo told The Jakarta Post on
Monday that Sudjono had requested a 30-day leave to return to his
hometown of Cirebon, West Java.
Nurdin has revealed that now, a week after the end of his
vacation, Sudjono had not returned to his post in Lhokseumawe,
Aceh.
Marzuki warned that those complicit in Sudjono's disappearance
could be charged with a criminal offense.
Speaking about the delayed trial, Marzuki remarked that the
government "must eventually make a decision to begin the trial
with or without" Sudjono's presence. (01/39/byg)