Rights body awaiting formal request to probe Priok riot

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights said yesterday that it has yet to receive a formal request from the relatives of missing people to reopen the investigation into a bloody riot which rocked Jakarta's Tanjung Priok district 12 years ago.

The commission will not start any investigation solely on account of public opinion, deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman said yesterday.

"That would be politicking... And that is not the purpose of this commission which was set up in 1993," he said.

"We can only start (an investigation) based on a formal complaint," he added.

Several public figures and Moslem organizations have recently called on the commission to reopen the Tanjung Priok file, saying that the official account, particularly concerning the number of people killed, was far from satisfactory.

The official version said that troops were forced to open fire on machete-yielding protesters in self defense during a riot on the night of Sept. 12, 1994. The military first said nine people were killed but a month later it revised the death toll to 18.

Last week relatives of people who are still missing after the riot urged the National Commission on Human Rights to reinvestigate the affair.

Led by Arief Biki, brother of Amir Biki -- a Moslem preacher and one of the few people whose body was identified after the riot -- the relatives have been gathering information and documents that they hope to submit to the commission to start a new inquiry.

Marzuki said that as of yesterday, the commission had not received any formal requests from the relatives.

The commission needed evidence in order to be able to work, he said.

Time should not preclude a new investigation, he said, pointing out that the commission had earlier conducted an investigation into a land conflict that occurred five years ago.

Commission Secretary-General Baharuddin Lopa has stated that because of its tight schedule, the commission could only discuss the possibility of reopening the Tanjung Priok file in December.

The body is currently finalizing its report on the riot in Central Jakarta on July 27.

Its preliminary finding that five people were killed and 74 others are missing has been challenged by the government, which has listed four deaths and none missing.

Meanwhile, a senior Armed Forces (ABRI) officer yesterday restated that as far as the military was concerned, the Tanjung Priok case is closed.

ABRI however would not stop the human rights commission from reopening the file if it decided to do so, Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs, Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid said during a lecture at Muhammadiyah University here.

He warned however of difficulties of conducting a new investigation.

"We have closed the case because it is beyond our ability to reopen it," he said, adding that "It would be unfair to judge something that happened 12 years ago with present perspectives."

People should look at the present and to their future instead of the past, he said, adding that people should be grateful for the prosperity that they are enjoying now

On Saturday ABRI Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung flatly rejected the demands to reopen the Priok file. (16/14)