'It was Soeharto's order': Sutiyoso

'It was Soeharto's order': Sutiyoso

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso, a retired three-star Army
general, admitted on Monday that military personnel were assigned
to take over the PDI headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, Central
Jakarta, on July, 27, 1996 after then president Soeharto had
implicitly ordered some senior military and police officers to
stop the free speech forum which was being staged at the
building.

"Based on it (the order), ABRI (former Indonesian Armed
Forces) officers then took the initiative to act in accordance
with their respective responsibilities," Sutiyoso told reporters
after being questioned for seven hours at National Military
Police headquarters by a joint military-police investigation
team.

Sutiyoso was Jakarta Military chief at the time when
"supporters" of the PDI (Indonesian Democratic Party) splinter
group led by Soerjadi forcefully took over the party's
headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro from supporters of then PDI leader
Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Supporters of Megawati, now the country's Vice President,
repeatedly delivered highly charged speeches at the compound,
protesting against the government which they accused of
attempting to destroy the Megawati-led PDI.

The violent attack, believed to have been backed by military
and police personnel, left at least five dead with 23 others
reportedly still missing. However, many have claimed that these
figures are actually much higher.

The incident triggered massive unrest in Central Jakarta.

Sutiyoso's remarks may be said to be the first admission ever
publicly made by those questioned over the attack which clearly
states the roles played by the military, police and Soeharto.

The governor said Soeharto gave an implicit order to retake
the PDI headquarters during a meeting at Soeharto's residence on
Jl. Cendana.

The meeting, Sutiyoso said, was attended by former Indonesian
Military chief Gen. (ret) Feisal Tanjung, former Army Chief of
Staff Gen. (ret) Hartono, former ABRI Chief of General Affairs
Soeyono, former Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Hamami Nata, and
Sutiyoso himself in his capacity as Jakarta Military chief.

During the meeting, he said, Soeharto claimed that the free
speech forum being staged at the PDI headquarters was creating
unrest among the people.

"(The order) came from above," Sutiyoso said.

Military personnel, he said, were assigned "only to help" the
police stop the free speech forum and not to forcibly take over
the headquarters.

"But if there were some personnel who acted wrongly according
to the law (during the assignment), morally I'll take the
responsibility (for their mistakes)," he said.

Sutiyoso, however, did not specify how many military personnel
were deployed during the operation.

He added that besides the City Military Command, ABRI's
Sociopolitical Affairs bureau and the Armed Forces Intelligence
Agency were also involved in the effort to 'secure' the PDI
headquarters. (berto/jaw)