Court to grill ex-VP on reconciliation motive
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Prosecutors in the Tanjung Priok shooting incident are set to present former vice president Try Sutrisno before the court to clarify the reconciliation he initiated between victims of the atrocities and the military.
One of the prosecutors, Widodo Supriyadi, said on Saturday the presence of Try, who was the Jakarta Military commander when the incident happened in 1984, was necessary to learn the reason behind the reconciliation, also known as islah, which was agreed upon on March 1, 2001 at the Sunda Kelapa Mosque in Central Jakarta.
The panel of judges apparently consider the Islamic reconciliation agreement between victims and military officers related to the incident to have influenced the testimonies of several witnesses.
Many witnesses of the trials who were also victims of the incident gave testimonies that differed from the statements they made in their dossiers after they participated in the islah. The trials are the second of their kind to bring perpetrators of crimes against humanity to court after those involved in the East Timor mayhem.
Widodo said Try would be summoned to testify after witnesses Bambang Suartono and Maj. Gen. (ret) Rudolph Butar-Butar, who are scheduled for Monday's trial of Col. Sutrisno Mascung and 10 of his men.
"According to judicial procedure, if a witness gives testimony that differs from what he or she told investigators the panel of judges will request an explanation. Summoning Try to explain the islah could be considered as part of that procedure," Widodo said.
Bambang was in 2001 the lieutenant colonel commanding the Jakarta Military Command's air defense artillery battalion, who upon receiving a letter from the prosecution requesting the military equipment to be seized as evidence in the case, replied that the equipment -- 13 SKS rifles, several bullet shells and a military truck -- had long been replaced.
Butar-Butar at the time was a lieutenant colonel commanding the North Jakarta military district, to which Sutrisno Mascung and his men from the third platoon of the air defense artillery were attached.
Sutrisno and his men are charged with opening fire on a crowd of Muslim demonstrators. At least 33 civilians were killed and 55 others injured according to an investigation in 2001 by the National Commission on Human Rights.
Widodo said the final word lay with the panel of judges.
Meanwhile, Syarifuddin Rambe, one of the initiators of the islah, said victims of the Tanjung Priok shooting incident had decided to accept the islah as they were tired of waiting for the government to honor its promise to bring the case to court.
"We were also tired of several parties who hid their own political agendas and interests while pretending to defend us," Rambe told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
He added that the victims expected no compensation whatsoever from the islah, but it was understood that the Penerus Bangsa Foundation, which was founded after the incident, would help the victims find jobs and channel donations from the military officers as capital.
Rambe had expected the case to be closed as both sides had agreed through the islah to put the past behind them.
"But as law-abiding citizens, we will comply if it is decided that the trials are to continue," Rambe said, adding that they also had no problem with other victims opposing the islah.
The Attorney General's Office commenced an investigation into the Tanjung Priok case in 2000, but later suspended it for over a year following the islah.