Canadian ballistics report reveals Trisakti gun types
JAKARTA (JP): Forensic ballistic experts in Canada have revealed that two bullets taken from the bodies of two students and another found outside a Trisakti University building were fired from SS-1 and Steyr AUG-P rifles.
The bullets were recovered not long after the May 12, 1998 fatal shooting in which four students were killed.
The result of the ballistic tests conducted by experts Mike Mclearn and Andy Boyle from Forensic Technologies WAI Inc. in Canada was disclosed at a media conference on Monday by members of a Trisakti fact-finding team.
Basically, the ballistic test result was not significant different to the result of tests conducted earlier here by head of the Trisakti investigation team, said Col. Hendardji, then Jakarta military police chief.
About a month after the shooting, which claimed the lives of four students, Hendardji told The Jakarta Post that his team had identified the guns used in the shooting as SS-1 and Steyr AUGs.
The conclusion was based on ballistic tests here by forensic experts of, among other parties, the metallurgy laboratory of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) using a Scanning Electron Microscope to examine the rifling marks (pitch).
"Two of the bullets were found to be 5.56 mm caliber, so we identified which types of guns use this caliber," Hendardji said.
In the media conference at the university on Monday, M. Hafiz Lubis, one of the three student members of the team assigned to escort the three bullets to Canada for tests, said the Canadian forensic ballistic expert company utilized the Integrated Ballistic Identification System in its analysis which helped it recognize the specifications of the bullets and the guns they were fired from.
"The company revealed that the three bullets were fired from Steyr and SS-1 guns," Lubis said.
The first two bullets, he explained, were taken from the bodies of students Heri Hartanto and Hendriawan Sie, while the other was found outside Gedung M building on the university's campus in Grogol, West Jakarta.
Lubis and his two fellow Trisakti students left Jakarta for Canada on May 17 with four other team members from the Indonesian Police central forensics laboratory (Puslabfor), the Indonesia military police, ITB's metallurgy laboratory and state-owned Pindad military equipment-maker. The team oversaw the ballistic tests from May 18 to May 21.
The joint team also took along 46 other bullets of similar and different calibers for comparison in the tests.
According to Lubis, the result of the ballistic tests in Canada has to be first officially endorsed by local ballistic forensic experts.
"The company did not want to send two of its employees here, saying it did not want to interfere in Indonesia's internal matters," he added.
Forensic Technologies WAI Inc. explained that the Indonesian military police officers had full authorization to seek information from ballistic experts to help reveal the real shooters in the incident.
"The military police here are expected to announce the result of the ballistic tests (of the three bullets) by the end of June at the latest," said Pramudya Wardhana, another team member.
The examiners, he said, might involve experts from Puslabfor or ITB's metallurgy laboratory.
Last year, Hendardji said Puslabfor had agreed to reexamine 21 SS-1 and Steyr-1 AUG guns believed to have been used by troops at the scene.
Last year's ballistics results had not been disclosed by the police.
According to student Lubis, the bullet found outside the building was identified by Canadian experts Mclearn and Andy Boyle as being fired from a SS1 rifle. The one taken from Hendriawan's body was specified as coming from a Steyr.
The bullet taken from Heri's corpse came from an SS-1 rifle, although McClearn in his first of two formal examinations said it came from a Steyr.
It remains unknown why security authorities have been unable to solve the May 12, 1998 shooting even though the matching of bullets to guns is one of the simplest principles in forensic science.
So far, only two police officers have been sent to jail for the shootings. A military tribunal stated that the two officers ordered their men to open fire without following proper procedures.
The military's fatal shooting of students attending an anti- Soeharto rally sparked a massive three-day riot in the capital. Former president Soeharto quit his post nine days later.
According to the Trisakti University Students Presidium (PMUT), Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Wiranto should be "more serious" in solving the tragedy.
"Gen. Wiranto must be responsible for finding the real shooters and the mastermind of these killings, by staging a fair and honest trial of the case," said Gunawan, PMUT spokesman, on Monday. (01/bsr)