May riot precondition for Soeharto's fall: Prabowo

JAKARTA (JP): Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto testified before a House of Representatives (DPR) special committee on Wednesday that the mid-May 1998 unrest was a prelude to the downfall of then president Soeharto.

"I already had a feeling on the evening of May 12, 1998 that the shootings were a sign of the end of the line for the Soeharto regime," Prabowo, who is also the son-in-law of the former president, said while referring to the May 12, 1998 shooting incident at the Trisakti University campus in Grogol, West Jakarta, which killed four of the university's students.

He said that as a military officer, he was aware that a loss of life during such a demonstration would represent a major defeat for the government.

"The dead victims, who became martyrs, played a role in reducing the legitimacy of the government.

"It was like a 'knockout blow' that the government could not resist," he said.

"And it was difficult for the security forces to maintain stability and order after the people became enraged over the incident," he added.

He cited the death of Arief Rahman Hakim, a University of Indonesia (UI) student during the mass unrest following the student protests in the capital demanding the resignation of president Sukarno in 1966. The founding president was unseated by a special session of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) the following year.

"And Adnan Buyung Nasution was the initially-targeted martyr for the mid-May 1998 unrest," Prabowo, the commander of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) when the incident occurred, said, referring to the noted human rights lawyer.

When asked about who was responsible for the incident, Prabowo said he could not apportion blame.

"I sent my (Kostrad) troops to help the Jakarta Military Command in restoring order in the capital. But, I had no direct control over them as they were attached to the military command.

"I'm not in a position to state that A or B was responsible for the incident," he said.

The House special committee is probing the use of violence by the security forces in dealing with student demonstrations in May and November 1998, events now known as the Trisakti and Semanggi tragedies.

The military tribunal established to investigate the Trisakti incident sentenced on Aug. 12, 1998 First Lt. Agus Tri Heryanto, 29, and Second Lt. Pariyo, both from the police's Mobile Brigade, to 10 months and four months in jail respectively for ordering their men to shoot into a crowd of demonstrating Trisakti University students, killing Heri Hartanto, Elang Mulya Lesmana, Hafidin Royan and Hendrawan Sie.

Another eight police officers were named suspects in the case, but their fate remains unclear up to the present time.

Prabowo further said that the May 1998 unrest could not be separated from an internationally-orchestrated campaign for the disintegration of nations.

"John Naisbitt has mentioned in his book -- Megatrend -- that Indonesia is the next target of 'Balkanization'," he said, while referring to the appearance of new, smaller states out of the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia.

When asked about what the special committee could do to uncover the truth behind the Trisakti incident, Prabowo said the committee could request a video recording of the incident from a foreign television station.

"If we look closely at the video, we will be able to clearly see the movements of the troops and this can tell us the type of bullets they were using to shoot at the students.

"The movements of people firing rubber bullets, blanks and live bullets are different. As a professional soldier, I can see the differences," he said.

However, he admitted that the military had run out of rubber bullets when the 1998 incident occurred.

"We ran out of rubber bullets...I admit that," he said.

He also suggested that an international investigation team, with expertise in ballistics, be established to analyze the bullets found in the victims' bodies.

When asked further whether his Kostrad troops used M-16 A2 rifles at the time of the incident, Prabowo said: "Kostrad does not use such rifles. It uses SS-1 and M-16 A1 rifles."

The hearing was marked by a protest involving some 30 students who demanded that Prabowo be prosecuted over his alleged involvement in the incident.

Earlier, Prabowo had denied the allegations, saying that they were slanderous. (02/imn)