Rights team urges officers be tried for rights abuses
Rights team urges officers be tried for rights abuses
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations (KPP
HAM) has identified 50 high and middle-ranking military and
police officers believed to be involved in the Trisakti and
Semanggi killings, and demanded they be charged.
KPP HAM, in its report probing the affair, formally
recommended on Thursday that the National Commission of Human
Rights (Komnas HAM) charge the officers for alleged crimes
against humanity.
One high-ranking military officer and two high-ranking police
officers were accused of involvement at the strategic level, 11
high and middle-ranking officers at the operation command level
with 36 middle-ranking officers at the field command level.
"We conclude that the killings took place with the full
involvement of the security officers who used their power, as
well as their weapons, in an excessive way for the sake of
certain political interest," KPP HAM's chairman Albert Hasibuan
told a press conference after submitting the report to Komnas
HAM.
The presentation of the report also marked the dissolution of
the commission, which was set up by Komnas HAM on Aug. 27 last
year to investigate the shooting of four Trisakti University
students during a demonstration on May 12, 1998, which triggered
massive riots that led to the downfall of former president
Soeharto.
It was also tasked to investigate the Semanggi I incident that
occurred on Nov. 13, 1998 and the Semanggi II incident that took
place on Sept. 24, 1999, in which several people, including
students, were killed.
The inquiry team had issued summonses to a number of military
and police generals, including former Indonesian Military chief
(ret) Gen. Wiranto for questioning.
However, the generals refused to answer the summonses,
alleging that the commission was unlawful.
"The Trisakti incident in May 1998 occurred as the security
instrument tried to stop students from holding rallies demanding
that former president Soeharto step down," Albert said on
Thursday.
"The Semanggi I incident occurred when security personnel
attempted to ensure Soeharto's successor, B.J. Habibie, remained
in office; while the Semanggi II incident took place as students
marched to protest a House session set to approve laws which
allowed the state to commit repressive acts against its
citizens," Albert said.
Present at the press conference were Hendardi of the
Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), Usman
Hamid, secretary of the inquiry team, and also Munarman of the
National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of the
Violence (Kontras).
Albert refused to name the accused officers, saying that
Article 24 of Law No. 26/2000 on human rights forbids them
revealing the names publicly.
The commission also urged the Attorney General's Office to
adopt recommendations made by the joint fact finding team
investigating the Trisakti incident on the grounds that the two-
day rampage across the country "had a systematical connection
with the Trisakti killings".