Court to grill ex-VP on reconciliation motive

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.