Attorney General to probe May riots

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Marzuki Darusman has set a one- week deadline for the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to integrate data on the May 1998 riots and submit the reports to his office for further legal action.

Speaking at a round table discussion on the riots on Monday, Marzuki contended that a report from a government-appointed team, known as TGPF, was eligible enough to be considered a fact- finding report that deserved following up by the Attorney General's Office.

"I think the formal investigation can start in one week, provided that the commission submits the report to my office," Marzuki contended.

Rampaging riots and looting hit Jakarta and several major cities in mid-May 1998 following the shooting to death of four Trisakti University students, who were joining demonstrations against incumbent president Soeharto. On May 21, Soeharto resigned, ending 32 years of authoritarian rule.

Weeks after the unrest, numerous claims of rape and abuse of Chinese-Indonesian women were made. TGPF reported in November 1998 that 66 women, mostly Chinese-Indonesians, had been raped.

The administration of President Abdurrahman Wahid decided to open a formal investigation into the alleged rape, but like the previous inquiries which were based on secondhand information, it uncovered scant evidence to support claims of sexual violence.

Government officials doubted the reports, saying that the team had been unable to interview a single victim or witness of the alleged rape.

Marzuki, who headed TGPF, asserted that there should be no doubt at all about the result of the fact-finding team's investigation. He said: "What's in the report is all valid, that is exactly what happened during the May riots."

He further said that according to government regulation No.1/1999 on a human rights tribunal, the result of any investigation sanctioned by the government could be used as a legal basis for a formal investigation by state prosecutors.

In response to Marzuki's statement, a member of the rights body, Bambang Soeharto, said he would bring the issue to the commission's plenary meeting this week.

"With Marzuki's commitment, we should not wait longer. We are going to consolidate the data and hopefully the commission's plenary meeting will make an approval to submit the report to the Attorney General's Office," Bambang said. (dja)