I'm not responsible for Tanjung Priok shootings, says Try

I'm not responsible for Tanjung Priok shootings, says Try

JAKARTA (JP): Former vice president Gen. (ret) Try Sutrisno
repeated his protestations of innocence on Monday, denying any
responsibility for the 1984 Tanjung Priok shootings.

"The incident occurred by accident. The troops had no
intention of killing or injuring people," Try, whose name was
reportedly included in the National Commission on Human Rights'
list of 23 suspects in the incident, told journalists on the
sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Justice and Unity Party
(PKP) congress at the Indonesia in Miniature Park in East
Jakarta.

Try, who was the Jakarta Military Commander when the incident
happened, said that the security forces had failed to handle the
angry mob, which turned violent and uncontrollable instead.

"The troops could not avoid the clash as they were being
attacked by the angry mob," Try, who is also chairman of the
Association of Retired Military Officers (Pepabri), said.

He argued that the troops had reacted in accordance with the
correct procedures.

He said he would be ready to be questioned as a suspect in the
incident only if the Attorney General's Office had proper
investigative systems and procedures for categorizing someone as
a suspect.

The 1984 violence erupted following allegedly provocative
sermons at Tanjung Priok's Rawa Badak Mosque by preachers who
criticized the government.

Chairman of the rights commission Djoko Sugianto submitted the
commission's final report on the case to Attorney General Marzuki
Darusman last weekend.

The report, drawn up by a special investigation team
established by the rights commission earlier this year,
recommended that 23 people be listed as suspects in the 1984
incident.

Both Djoko and Marzuki have declined to name the suspects.

But a staffer with the rights commission said that all 23 of
the suspects were from the military, with their ranks ranging
from private up to general. They reportedly include Try and
former Armed Forces (ABRI) chief Gen. (ret) L.B. Moerdani.

To date, no exact figures have been made public on the number
of fatalities during the incident.

The military claimed that 40 people died in the incident,
while eyewitnesses said they had seen a truck loaded with charred
bodies. Meanwhile, the rights commission was able to identify 33
fatalities and 55 others as being injured in the incident.

The commission also discovered that the Army's Gatot Subroto
Hospital had destroyed the medical records of 23 victims, who had
been receiving treatment at the hospital.

Try denied allegations that the troops had been instructed to
quell any efforts to replace Pancasila with another ideology.

"It was a local incident. Don't generalize and politicize the
incident," he said with emotion.

Rumors were rife that the incident occurred because the troops
were acting upon an instruction from former President Soeharto
that the country's only ideology was Pancasila.

Separately, Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. said he supported
the move of the Attorney General's Office to follow up on the
rights' commission's findings.

"We support the measures taken by the Attorney General's
Office.

"But, the Attorney General's Office should differentiate
between whether the suspects had acted beyond their authority or
were merely performing their duties as members of the state
apparatus," he said. (02)