Preliminary results on Tanjung Priok case done

Preliminary results on Tanjung Priok case done

JAKARTA (JP): The government-sponsored joint team of forensic experts established to investigate the 1984 violence at Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, announced the preliminary results of the autopsies of 14 of the victims.

According to the team, the skulls of at least two of the exhumed victims revealed similar gun-shot wounds.

"There were gross human rights abuses here," the chief of the team, Maj. Gen. (ret) Koesparmono Irsan, said on Monday after witnessing the handover of five of the bodies to their respective families at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital.

Based on examinations, the team, whose members include forensic experts from Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital, the National Police and senior member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), provisionally concluded each of the bodies was wrapped in a plastic bag before being buried.

Agus Purwadianto, a member of the team, said: "There is a similar pattern (to the wounds) on the skeletons and in the way the remains were buried.

"They were wrapped in plastic bags, seemingly aimed at stopping the bleeding."

The 14 exhumed bodies were part of the 23 victims -- according to the official version -- killed in the Sept. 12, 1984, tragedy. For many people, particularly the residents of Tanjung Priok and the families of the victims, the killings remain a mystery.

Of the 23 victims, only one was buried by his relatives. The others were said to have been buried in three different cemeteries in the capital by security authorities without the knowledge of the victims' families.

Seven were buried in Mengkok cemetery and eight in Kramat Ganceng cemetery, both in North Jakarta, and the other seven were buried in Condet, East Jakarta.

The 14 bodies exhumed by the team consisted of six remains from Mengkok and eight from Kramat Ganceng.

All of the remains exhumed from Mengkok have been examined and handed over to their families for reburial, while only five of the eight exhumed from Kramat Ganceng have been identified.

A hole matching the size of a bullet was found in the skulls of a victim exhumed from Kramat Genceng and one exhumed from Mengkok, Agus said.

The autopsies are part of the efforts of the joint team established by Komnas HAM to investigate the 1984 clash between Tanjung Priok residents and military personnel.

The incident, which allegedly erupted following emotionally charged sermons by local clerics who were reportedly criticizing the Soeharto administration, left 23 residents dead according to officials.

However, eyewitnesses said they saw a truck loaded with charred bodies leaving the area. However, none of these reported remains were ever found.

Another team member, Maj. Gen. (ret) Samsudin, said the team would not exhume the bodies in the cemetery in Condet due to a lack of accurate data about the victims.

After the ceremony on Monday, relatives of the five victims brought the coffins to City Hall and demanded Governor Sutiyoso witness the reburials.

But the group, led by Dewi Wardah, the widow of local cleric Amir Biki, who was killed in the bloodshed and whose body has never been found, failed to meet with any city officials. (07/bby/dja)