Parents of shot Trisakti students to meet Wiranto

JAKARTA (JP): The parents of four Trisakti University students who were shot dead during a campus rally on May 12, are to meet Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto on Monday to seek further explanation of the incident.

On Saturday Bagus Wiyoga Nandita, 49, the father of Elang Mulya Lesmana, told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview that the issue of the shootings, which triggered deadly riots in Jakarta and led to the downfall of Soeharto, has yet to be satisfactorily resolved.

"We want an assurance (from Wiranto) that the case will be settled," Bagus said, adding that members of the student senate and one of the university's deputy rectors would also attend the meeting at ABRI's headquarters in Central Jakarta.

Elang, a 20-year-old architecture student, was shot dead along with Heri Hartanto, 21, Hafidhin Royan, 22, and Hendriawan Sie, 21.

"The court-martial of a number of police officers accused of an involvement in the shootings has not got to the root of the problem," Bagus said.

He was referring to the military tribunal which in August sentenced two police officers, First Lt. Agus Tri Heryanto and Second Lt. Pariyo, to 10 months and four months in jail respectively for their involvement in the shootings.

"Ballistics tests proved that the bullets which killed the students were not fired from police rifles," Bagus added.

The National Commission on Human Rights said on May 27 that the police did not use live ammunition during the incident in front of the university in West Jakarta.

The rights body at the time also said that several witnesses to the incident had been threatened and refused to give testimony.

A prominent lawyer representing the defendants, Adnan Buyung Nasution, has also said the police officers were being used as scapegoats in the shootings, which many believe involved other units of the military.

The join fact-finding team investigating the May riots told the House of Representatives in September that it believed there was a link between the unrest, the abduction of political activists and the shooting dead of four Trisakti University students.

ABRI honorably discharged the former chief of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto in August and removed two senior Kopassus officers from active duty for their involvement in the abductions and torture of political activists.

The fact-finding team is expected to present its final conclusions to the government this week.

The 18-member team is comprised of representatives of the Armed Forces (ABRI), government agencies, the human rights commission and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It was set up to investigate and establish who incited the May riots, if allegations that they were incited were proved to be true.

The team is also investigating claims made by human rights groups that many women were gang raped during the riots in which around 1,200 people died. (byg)