Military tribunal to try other Trisakti suspects

JAKARTA (JP): National military police chief Maj. Gen. Djasrie Marin hinted on Thursday that the Jakarta military tribunal would soon try several city police personnel, who were allegedly involved in the May 1998 Trisakti shooting incident.

"We have nearly completed the dossiers on those police personnel. Hopefully, we can submit them to the military prosecutors by the end of this month," the two-star general told reporters after addressing a discussion on the incident in front of Trisakti University in Grogol, West Jakarta.

He declined to reveal the number of police personnel to be prosecuted nor whether Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel were involved in the shooting incident, which claimed four student lives and injured dozens of others.

"I cannot remember," he said after being pressed by reporters.

The military police have declared 18 Jakarta Police personnel as suspects. Two of the 18 suspects were prosecuted at the Jakarta Military Court in a two-month hearing which began in June 1998.

The two officers, First. Lt. Agus Tri Heryanto and Second Lt. Pariyo, were sentenced to 10 months and 4 months respectively for breaching police discipline.

However, the hearing for other suspects was suspended in the absence of the results of a series of ballistic tests on the bullets which were found in two dead students. The tests were conducted by the National Police central forensic laboratory (Puslabfor), Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and state military equipment producer PT Pindad.

Both ITB and Pindad concluded that the firearms used by the personnel were a Steyr AUG and an SS-1 rifle.

The results of Puslabfor's ballistic tests last year have not been disclosed.

However, a joint team comprising members from Trisakti University, national military police headquarters, ITB, Pindad and Puslabfor, began a series of foreign trips in Sept. 1998 in order for the forensic tests be carried out by foreign institutions. The team took the bullets to some noted forensic laboratories in Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong and Northern Ireland.

Djasrie said the latest trip was made to the Forensic Science Agency in Belfast, Northern Ireland, last February.

"The results were the same as those from the other forensic offices: that the bullets were from an SS-1 rifle and a Steyr-1 AUG gun," he said.

Djasrie dismissed the allegations that the investigators had been sluggish in revealing the results.

"We should be careful in determining the kind of weapons used by the personnel. The facts will be useful in disclosing the truth behind the incident to the military court judges," he said.

The May 12 shooting incident led to a massive anti-Soeharto (former president) rally two days later, creating a three-day riot in the capital.

Soeharto announced his resignation on May 21. (asa)