Canadian ballistics report reveals Trisakti gun types

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)