Parents of shot Trisakti students to meet Wiranto
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)