Kontras objects to military court's trying Trisakti case

Kontras objects to military court's trying Trisakti case

JAKARTA (JP): Military personnel allegedly involved in the
bloody Trisakti and Semanggi incidents should be tried by ad hoc
judges rather than a military tribunal, activists said on Friday.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence
(Kontras) and the Humanitarian Volunteer Team said a military
tribunal could not be expected to be objective, as military
tribunals tended to protect defendants.

They were commenting on Air Rear Marshal Graito Husodo's
statement that a military court would begin hearing the Trisakti
case on June 18. The same court will hear the Semanggi case later
in the month.

The House of Representatives' special commission for the
Trisakti and Semanggi cases held an internal meeting to discuss
the issue on June 6. Only three of the 10 factions represented on
the commission stated that right abuses had occurred during the
incidents, according to Kontras secretary Usman Hamid.

The three factions were the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle faction, the National Awakening Party faction and the
Love the Nation Democratic faction.

"We suspect that there must be a conspiracy between the House
and the TNI (Indonesian Military) not to try the Trisakti and
Semanggi cases through an ad hoc trial because the House will
need the TNI's to support for its proposal for a special session
of the People's Consultative Assembly," he said.

Usman also said Kontras doubted the Commission for Human
Rights' independence to investigate violations during the
Trisakti and Semanggi incidents. He said the investigation had
remained stagnant since the rights body said it needed approval
from the House to began the probe.

He said Law No. 26/2000 on human rights did not stipulate that
an investigation of past rights abuses required the approval of
the House.

Four students from Trisakti University were killed during a
rally in May 1998 to demand then president Soeharto's
resignation. Five people died in the Semanggi incident in
September 1999, when security officers opened fire to disperse a
demonstration over a security bill. (01)