Cool response given to Tj. Priok trial

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The poor record of the country's human rights tribunal in handling the 1999 East Timor bloodshed has produced ample reason for suspicion over the government's plan to present the long- awaited hearing into the 1984 Tanjung Priok tragedy, a rights activist has said.

"I'm sorry to say I'm not optimistic (about the plan)," said chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) Hendardi.

The Attorney General's Office swore in last week a dozen ad hoc prosecutors to handle the Tanjung Priok shooting, which left dozens unaccounted for.

Attorney General M.A. Rachman said last week that the case would be taken to court as soon as the prosecutors had prepared their charges.

The Attorney General's Office has named 14 active and retired military officers, including the current commander of the Army's feared Special Forces (Kopassus), Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan, as suspects in the incident.

Sriyanto was head of the operational section of the North Jakarta Military District at the time of the bloodshed.

However, L.B. Moerdani and Try Sutrisno, Indonesian Military commander and Jakarta Military chief respectively at the time of the bloodshed, were conspicuously absent from the list of suspects.

Hendardi said the absence of political will, rather than inappropriate legislation on human rights, had created more problems in the promotion of human rights in the country.

"I suspect that it (the human rights tribunal) has become a tool to protect military officers and civilians responsible for human rights crimes," Hendardi said over the weekend.

The Jakarta ad hoc human rights tribunal has been criticized for acquitting 12 of 18 civilians and security personnel, including three Army generals, who were charged with gross human rights violations for their failure to prevent a violent rampage carried out by pro-Jakarta militia members and their military backers in 1999.

Both the international and local communities described the tribunal, set up under strong international pressure, as a sham.

Earlier this month, East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri called for the establishment of an international tribunal in a neutral country to try Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel allegedly involved in the 1999 mayhem.

Hendardi said justice seekers in the Tanjung Priok case may face more disappointment than victims of the East Timor mayhem, as the case was not expected to attract international attention.

A presidential decree issued in 2000 on past human rights violations stipulates that an ad hoc court would try cases arising from the 1999 East Timor and Tanjung Priok human rights abuses.

The decree followed the enactment of Law No. 26/2000 on the human rights tribunal, which carries a maximum sentence of death for those convicted of gross human rights violations.

"Don't expect too much (from the tribunal)," Hendardi warned.

The tendency, Hendardi said, could be seen from the fact that the Attorney General's Office had failed to name the military leadership serving at the time of the Tanjung Priok incident.

The Tanjung Priok bloodshed took place on Sept. 12, 1984, when soldiers opened fire on antigovernment protesters outside a mosque at Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

Relatives of the victims say the incident claimed more than 400 lives, while the military claims only 18 people were killed.

An investigation by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) stated that 33 were killed and 55 injured in the violence.