Marzuki lashes out at court martial

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)