Govt should focus on inquiry of 'Black Friday'

JAKARTA (JP): Students have demanded that the government concentrate on investigating the Semanggi tragedy rather than waste time on charging people with treason.

The clashes between students and security officers on Nov. 12 and Nov. 13 claimed 16 lives, the last being student Engkus Kusnadi, who died on Sunday after being in a coma since he was shot the week before.

Charging the government with being slow, Ki Joyo Sardo of the University of Indonesia Big Family expressed fears on Monday that investigations into the shootings would be allowed to drift.

"Too much has happened (since the clashes), as if somebody wants this chaotic situation to continue," Sardo said. On Sunday riots in downtown Jakarta led to several deaths and churches being burnt and damaged.

"Why get involved with this treason issue? How about my fellow students who died? What about the officers who shot them? The government seems to be deliberately forgetting this case," Sardo said, adding students did not care about the treason charges.

Inung, of the Students' Action Front for Reform and Democracy, said: "The longer they postpone the Semanggi investigation, the bigger the chance is for us to prove that the rulers were behind the clashes." The only way to ensure public trust in the government, he said, was for "the Armed Forces to come forward and tell the truth."

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Togar M. Sianipar said on Monday that dossiers of 19 suspects charged with treason would be submitted to the courts in about two weeks.

Togar also said that the police had summoned three expert witnesses and confiscated "strong evidence" of printed documents and recorded discussions between the suspects.

Of the 19 suspects, 17 were signatories of a joint communique, a strong antigovernment declaration issued on Nov. 13. The remaining suspects were also charged because they attended the function announcing the declaration at the Hotel Sahid Jaya in South Jakarta.

They all face charges of violating Articles 107 and 110 of the Criminal Code on treason which carry maximum penalties of life imprisonment. However, one of the signatories, Adityo Hanafie also faces additional charges on violating an immigration law.

One of his lawyers, Petrus Bala Pattyona, said 51-year-old Hanafie, a French citizen, was summoned again by police after being questioned late on Saturday and Sunday.

"Police read out other violations of Article No. 174 of the Criminal Code and Law No. 9/1992. He (Adityo) was charged with abusing his official travel documents which were issued by the Ministry of Justice's Directorate General of Immigration," Petrus said. Hanafie, owner of an Indonesian restaurant in Paris, was in Jakarta visiting relatives, Petrus said.

"First, he was on business because he brought tourists from France, and he has personal matters to settle here while his involvement in the joint communique was purely accidental as was at the Sahid Jaya Hotel, having been invited by Johny for a cup of coffee," he said. (edt/emf)