DKP to recommend Prabowo's trial, says Gen. Subagyo

JAKARTA (JP): The chief of the Officers Honor Council, Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, confirmed yesterday the seven-member body would recommend that former commander of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto be court-martialled for his alleged involvement in the abductions and torture of political activists.

"We'll recommend (to Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto) that Prabowo be court-martialled, rather than just be given administrative punishment," Subagyo said after saying Friday prayers at the mosque in the Army's headquarters.

The ultimate decision, however, will be taken by Wiranto himself, Subagyo pointed out.

"You cannot ask me whether Prabowo will eventually be court- martialled since it is the ABRI chief's authority to decide," he said.

"We can only give a recommendation to the Armed Forces commander. It can either be accepted or rejected," he added.

Prabowo, his successor Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwopranjono and the former commander of Kopassus' Group IV for Intelligence Operations, Col. Chairawan, are currently being investigated by the council for the abductions. Ten lower-ranking Kopassus soldiers will be court-martialled for allegedly carrying out the abductions.

Prabowo has admitted that the abductions took place because he misinterpreted an instruction from a superior.

It is also known that he was ordered to lend Kopassus personnel to another unit and that those troops were placed under the unit's commander through what is known in military terminology as "under operational control" (BKO).

The council was established on Aug. 3 and started work the next day. It will proceed with its questioning next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Chairawan expressed his hope yesterday that the whole affair would soon be over.

Speaking to reporters in a rare public appearance since the start of the probe, he said it was now enough for him to talk before the council and that he did not need to talk anywhere else.

"I hope that the case can be completed soon," he said after saying Friday prayers with Subagyo.

Chairawan, who appeared to have lost weight, declined to comment on the investigation, and treated reporters' questions warily.

"Please ask Pak Bagyo," he said, referring to Subagyo.

"I just did what my superior ordered me to do," he said, before joining Subagyo who was returning to the main building in the Army Headquarters.

Chairawan, who was removed from his post at Kopassus a few days before the council's hearings started last week, said he no longer dealt with intelligence activities.

"I now do some administrative duties at the Army's General Staff Department," he said.

Separately, military observer Rudini confirmed that any instruction to detach Kopassus troops to another military unit could not have come from an officer other than the Armed Forces commander.

"Kopassus is operationally under the Armed Forces commander's supervision. The decision to transfer the troops must have come from him," he said.

Rudini did not mention any names, but he was likely referring to Gen. (ret.) Feisal Tanjung, who led the Armed Forces from 1993 until March this year. The abductions took place between May 1997 and May 1998.

The Army chief, on the other hand, could not have made the instruction since he only supervises Kopassus' administrative needs, said Rudini, who is himself a former Army chief.

He said, however, that he was sure there could not have been any instruction from the Armed Forces to kidnap and torture activists.

"He (Prabowo) must have created his own operation. It was his own misinterpretation of his superior's order."

Former Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Sutiyoso concurred. "He must have arbitrarily acted on his own," he said. (imn)