Confusing testimonies

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)