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)