Ex-general jailed for Priok killing
Ex-general jailed for Priok killing
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta
The ad hoc rights tribunal sentenced on Friday a retired general
to 10 years in prison for committing gross human rights
violations in the Tanjung Priok massacre 20 years ago, which
killed, according to official accounts, at least 14 protesters
and injured dozens of others.
Maj. Gen. (ret.) Rudolph Butar-Butar, a lieutenant colonel and
former head of the North Jakarta military district, was found
guilty by a five-member panel of judges of failing to prevent or
halt what they called a systematic killing of civilians in
September 1984.
The verdict, the first to be handed down in the Tanjung Priok
massacre tribunal, is the minimum sentence for rights abusers as
stipulated under Law No. 26/2000. Prosecutors had also sought a
10-year imprisonment for Butar-Butar.
Presiding judge Tjitjut Sutiyarso said the defendant was
guilty of violating Law No. 26/2000 on human rights for his
failure to restrain military personnel under his command from
shooting civilians protesting the detention of four of their
colleagues in the military compound. They barely reached the
compound when troops opened fire.
The panel of judges also ordered the government to pay
compensation to families of the victims who had perished in the
incident, one of the most brutal incidents during the 32-year
authoritarian rule of former president Soeharto.
The defense lawyers said they would appeal the verdict.
Looking appalled, Butar-Butar said he was very disappointed
with the verdict. "I was just doing my duty to the country,"
Butar-Butar told reporters.
Usman Hamid, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons
and Victims of Violence (Kontras), a local non-governmental
organization which has long represented the Priok victims,
praised the panel of judges saying that the verdict indicated its
independence and resoluteness in punishing human rights
violators.
"However, there is still a long way to go and we hope that
the higher courts that will hear the appeal will uphold the
verdict," Usman said.
Butar-Butar is one among 14 retired and active military
personnel who have been indicted for their role in the massacre.
All have been charged under the Human Rights Law, which carries a
minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of
death.
During the incident Butar-Butar was in charge of the 40-strong
Platoon III of the Air Defense Artillery Battalion based in North
Jakarta. The platoon was deployed on orders from the district
military command to guard the military compound and important
public facilities in the vicinity against possible attack from
protesters.
The Tanjung Priok rights tribunal is the second major attempt
to bring to justice military personnel responsible for past human
rights abuses, after a similar trial on East Timor.
In the East Timor trial, 18 military and police personnel as
well as civilian leaders were brought to court for failing to
prevent gross rights abuses in the bloody mayhem following the
province's breakaway from Indonesia through a United Nations-
sponsored referendum.
However, 12 of the defendants, mostly military and police
personnel, were acquitted.
The former military commander overseeing East Timor Maj. Gen.
Adam Damiri, remains free pending appeal while civilian governor
Abilio Jose Osorio Soares recently had his 10-year prison
sentence upheld by the Supreme Court.