Marzuki lashes out at court martial

JAKARTA (JP): Human rights campaigner Marzuki Darusman said on Sunday he doubted that the trial of 11 members of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) would unravel the kidnapping of political activists unless their superiors were also brought to trial.

The court martial of 11 junior Kopassus officers, which opened on Wednesday, appeared to be more like a damage control exercise rather than a real attempt at establishing the truth about the abductions, Marzuki told The Jakarta Post by phone.

Noting various anomalies in the court procedures, he urged Armed Forces (ABRI) Chief Gen. Wiranto "to take steps to correct the perception that the trial was choreographed to appease the public and not to get to the bottom of the truth and justice."

The military prosecutor has accused the 11 defendants of acting on their own initiatives in the abduction and torture of nine activists in the last months of the Soeharto regime early this year.

This virtually means that the buck stops with them, and that their superiors, including former Kopassus commander Lt. Gen. Prabowo, will not be implicated.

The trial, which resumes on Thursday, was held even as human rights campaigners questioned the whereabouts of 13 other activists who are still missing to this date. Nine others were released to tell their stories, and one activist was found dead.

They noted that the military prosecutor had limited the accusation to "depriving individuals of their freedom" -- which is punishable with up to seven years imprisonment -- but omitted the charge of torture in spite of testimony to that effect from the survivors.

Marzuki criticized the military prosecutor's claim that the Army major who headed the operational command codenamed "Rose" had acted "out of his conscience" to protect the state when ordering the kidnapping of "radical" individuals.

"If conscience is accepted as a general ruling... it has set a very dangerous precedent, and it reflects a complete breakdown in ABRI's command procedure," Marzuki said.

"The whole trial is staged and is designed to minimize the damage done to ABRI, and it seems that it will lead to a miscarriage of justice.

"It will lead to total confusion... because there is no indication that those who were in charge of Kopassus policies are going to be brought to court," Marzuki said.

Marzuki believed that Lt. Gen. Prabowo should be put on trial.

"It is not clear whether he is going to have a separate trial or it is going to be linked with this present trial... this needs to be clarified by the government," Marzuki said.

Prabowo was discharged from the Army at the height of the investigation of the kidnapping in August. He was last reported to be in Amman, Jordan undergoing medical treatment. Two other senior Kopassus officers, and Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwopranjono and Col. Chairawan, have also been relieved of any command posts.

Skeptics

Former justice Adi Andojo Soetjipto added to the chorus of skeptics, saying that the trial would not likely satisfy the public expectations, especially those of the victims and relatives of the abductees, that justice should be upheld.

A lot would depend on the prosecutors rather than the judges, said the dean of the Law School of Trisakti University.

Adi doubted however whether public pressure would succeed in expanding the trial to include more senior Kopassus officers.

Human rights activist Hendardi said the trial should be stopped unless it was expanded to include the top brass of Kopassus.

"It's impossible that the commander did not know anything about the abductions especially since the Kopassus headquarters was used as the detention center," said the chairman of the Association for the Indonesian Legal and Rights Assistance.

Hendardi believed that the abductions were carried out, if not on order, at least with the consent, of officials far higher up, including possibly then president Soeharto.

He described the court martial as a staged drama that would only add to the list of injustices carried out by the state.

The Committee of Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has also rejected the trial, saying that ABRI should first clarify whether the remaining 13 victims of abductions were dead or alive. (byg/44/imn)