'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)