Confusing testimonies

SURABAYA: Witnesses in the military tribunals of four soldiers allegedly responsible for the 1993 fatal shooting of four villagers from Nipah, on Madura Island, gave different testimonies from those recorded in the trial dossiers.

Suridah and Dariah, who were among the mob of villagers angry over a planned land appropriation scheme and clashed with the military, denied that the villagers were shouting. The dossiers said that the shouting was the reason why 18 security officers under Second Lt. Djakfar Sudjak, one of the defendants, approached the crowd and opened fire.

The witnesses said that when the soldiers opened fire, some villagers immediately pleaded with them to stop. "Let us live, sir.. let us live," the witnesses quoted what some of the women villagers begged of the soldiers.

Sunari, another witness, denied a part in the dossiers which said that the villagers were armed with bamboo spears.

In the dossiers, the defendants said that one of the villagers threw a spear at First Corporal Kasimun. Defendants Said Riyadi and Siswanto then allegedly opened fire on the mob from a distance of about 13 meters, while Bambang Edi Cahyono shot toward a tree surrounded by the villagers. Sudjak himself reportedly gave three warning shots.

"Nobody brought spears or weapons. They only came to watch officials measuring our land," Sunari said.

Three men and a woman from the village on Madura were killed in Sept. 1993 when troops opened fire on locals protesting against a government team measuring land to be appropriated for a reservoir. (15/31)