Priok victims refuse to give up
Priok victims refuse to give up
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Dismayed by the acquittal of Army's special forces commander Maj.
Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan, victims and the family members of
victims of the 1984 shooting incident in Tanjung Priok demanded
on Friday an international rights tribunal for the military
officers involved.
The victims, facilitated by the Commission for Missing Persons
and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said they would resort to an
international tribunal if the Supreme Court upholds the ad hoc
human rights court verdict that has released, so far, all but one
officer implicated in the massacre.
The Attorney General's Office is considering an appeal.
"Although we don't believe prosecutors will be successful in
their appeal, we are relying on the Supreme Court in any case. If
the appeal is overturned, we will bring the human rights case to
the international forum," one of the victims, Abdul Basyir told
The Jakarta Post.
Basyir, along with seven people in his family, were detained
at a military detention center in Cimanggis, Bogor regency,
without trial, in the wake of the shooting incident.
Yetty Bachtiar, a daughter of Tanjung Priok victim Bachtiar
Johan, assured that with palpable international pressure, she
believed the TNI generals implicated in the atrocities could be
brought to justice.
When asked how she felt about the not-guilty verdict, Yetty
said: "It doesn't make any sense that those who ordered the
shooting in Tanjung Priok were acquitted. We are infuriated by
the verdict and feel very sad," she told the Post.
Official figures say that 24 people were killed and 54 others
injured. However, the testimonies of victims and family members
of victims indicated that over 100 people were killed in the
incident, one of the bloodiest in the 30-year rule of former
president Soeharto.
On Thursday, Sriyanto, the operations chief of the North
Jakarta Military Command at the time of the incident, was freed
of charges of gross human rights violations.
The verdict contradicted an earlier decision delivered by the
same court, which convicted former North Jakarta Military
commander Maj. Gen. (ret) Rudolph Butar Butar and sentenced him
to 10 years in prison for crimes against humanity in Tanjung
Priok.
Coordinator of Kontras Usman Hamid said the demand for an
international tribunal was logical, considering the country's
weak judiciary.
Kontras and fellow non-governmental organizations the
Foundation for Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), the
Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Indonesian
Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) and the Institute for Policy
Research and Advocacy (Elsam), denounced on Friday the acquittal
of Sriyanto, saying it dealt the struggle to uphold human rights
in the country a huge blow.
"The ad hoc rights tribunal is merely part of the cycle of
impunity for perpetrators of crimes against humanity," the NGOs
said in their joint statement.
Former Udayana Military commander Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri was
the latest military or police officer exonerated in the human
rights tribunal over the 1999 mayhem in East Timor, when the
Supreme Court overturned the ad hoc court verdict that sentenced
him to three years in prison last week.