Murder retrial gets military support
SURABAYA (JP): East Java Military chief Maj. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu has promised to support those seeking a fresh inquiry into the 1993 murder of labor activist Marsinah, provided the campaign was not meant to be a "political ploy".
"I really want to see cooperation between the military and police, so nothing will be covered up," Ryamizard told the media here on Friday.
The commander said he did not know much about the case as he was not here when it broke. He said he was never given any special instructions from Indonesian Military chief Gen. Wiranto on how to handle pressure from the case.
Different investigations by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) invariably concluded the role of military personnel in the murder.
The badly mutilated body of Marsinah, a worker at a wristwatch manufacturer company in Sidoardjo, was found on May 8, 1993, in the forest of Jati Wilangan, Nganjuk, some 150 km west of here. The murder took place not long after she led a labor strike.
Following well-publicized investigations, the Sidoarjo Court acquitted all those that the police accused of murder. It was later revealed that confessions drawn from the defendants were made under severe duress.
A number of activists, including playwright Ratna Sarumpaet, recently took up a campaign to push for the case to be reopened. Ratna staged on Tuesday a reenacting of the trial which featured those involved in the actual one.
One of the acquitted defendants, Bambang Murdiono, recalled the torture he suffered at the hands of the investigators.
"I was forced to admit that I had killed a woman. My mother then suffered a heart problem, my son was ostracized by his classmates and we had to move away. I was condemned by the community," said Bambang as he held back tears. At the time, he was a supervisor at the wristwatch factory.
"I was kicked, burned with cigarette butts and given electric shocks on my genitals," he said. "I am still suffering from this traumatic experience, but for the sake of justice I made myself available for this show."
The play was set as a court proceeding and the audience of hundreds of workers was allowed to give prompt responses to what players were saying. The play will run until Aug. 22 and will come to Jakarta on Aug. 28.
Other players include: Trimulya D. Soerjadi, a respected Surabaya lawyer who defended Yudi Susanto, the main defendant and owner of the factory; Richard, a lawyer for another employee of PT Catur; witnesses Muhni Idris, Kadarusman and Tjuk K. Sukiadi.
Trimulya said his client was severely tortured into admitting he was Marsinah's killer.
"Yudi was willing to say anything because he could not stand the torture any longer. He would have confessed to killing a thousand Marsinahs," he said.
Rights campaigner Pungky Indarti of Indonesian Legal Aid's Surabaya office welcomed the campaign to spur reinvestigation, but doubted it would do much good. She suspected parties in the police, military and prosecution would instead find more complicated ways to block the campaign.
Ratna said she planned to collect a million signatures and take them on Sept. 3 to Gen. Wiranto in order to force the government to find the real murderer of Marsinah.
Ratna first staged the play in July in Jakarta. It was the first play on the labor activist's unsolved murder to have been staged after a ban under the rule of former president Soeharto. (nur/06)