Thu, 10 Feb 2000

Rights abuse suspect now a deserter: TNI

JAKARTA (JP): A key missing suspect in an alleged mass murder by Army troops in West Aceh last year has been officially declared a deserter.

Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman Air Rear Marshal Graito Usodo said on Wednesday that Lt. Col. Sudjono, an intelligence chief from the Lhokseumawe-based Lilawangsa Military Command, was declared a deserter on Jan. 18.

"There's already an order to find his whereabouts," Graito said.

Sudjono is among 20 military personnel and civilians scheduled to stand trial later this month for their alleged involvement in the shooting of Islamic boarding school teacher Tengku Bantaqiah and dozens of his students in West Aceh in July 1999.

Troops allegedly shot dead Bantaqiah, his wife, his students and dozens of farmers in an antirebel raid on July 23 in the remote Beutong area, some 100 kilometers south of Lhokseumawe on July 23.

Local military officers maintain Bantaqiah and his students, believed to be allies of the Free Aceh Movement, were killed in an exchange of fire.

But a government-sanctioned inquiry quoted witnesses as saying that there was no opposition from the 65 people who were shot dead.

Graito said Sudjono disappeared after obtaining permission to go on leave from Jan. 5 to Jan. 17 to the West Javanese towns of Cirebon and Purwakarta.

He said Sudjono wanted to return to his home in West Java after suffering from psychological pressure.

The trial, which was due to begin later this month, may now have to be postponed.

When asked if Sudjono could have been kidnapped to prevent the upcoming trial, Graito replied, "It is not true that TNI has orchestrated the disappearance of Sudjono. TNI, as an institution, has never instructed that kind of order".

Separately in the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan, Lt. Col Nurdin Sulistyo, spokesman for the Bukit Barisan Military Command overseeing security in Aceh, also denied that the military command was involved in the disappearance of Sudjono.

Outspoken human rights activist Munir suggested on Tuesday that Sudjono may have been abducted to "prevent him from uncovering the whole of the military violence in Aceh".

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman has said that the government "must eventually make a decision to begin the Aceh rights abuse trial with or without Sudjono's presence".

Minister of Law and Legislation Yusril Ihza Mahendra said, however, that an edict from the Supreme Court would be needed to decide whether the trial could be opened without Sudjono's presence.

Yusril was quoted by Antara as saying that an edict would be needed as it is uncommon in the Indonesian criminal code to have an in absentia trial without the presence of the defendant.

Shot

Meanwhile in Aceh, four people, whom the TNI claim were members of a separatist movement, were shot dead in Bireuen regency, North Aceh, on Tuesday during a security sweep of the area.

"They had resisted arrest. We seized two homemade short guns from them," North Aceh Police station chief Lt. Col. Syafei Aksal claimed.

Aksal said security forces raided a house believed to be a separatists hideout in Blang Lawe village, Syamtalira Bayu district, in Bireuen at 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

"A large number of people then attacked us when we ordered them to surrender," said Aksal.

However, North Aceh spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) Aceh Ismail Syahputra contended that the four were unarmed civilians who were being forced by security forces to reveal the whereabouts of the GAM headquarters before being shot.

Separately on Tuesday, two school girls were injured after a grenade was thrown by an unidentified man in Geudong area, Samudra district, North Aceh.

Cut Novita Sari, 10 and Ayu Pertiwi, 10, were rushed to Cut Meutia hospital in Lhokseumawe.

"The attacker flung the grenade at a nearby military post but missed and the blast struck the two girls who were on their way to school," Azhari Makmun, Ayu's father, said. (50/edt/sur/emf/39)