Rights tribunal charges ex-general for Priok bloodshed

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A former military police chief stood before the ad hoc rights tribunal in Jakarta on Tuesday, charged with crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre and for failing to prevent his subordinates from torturing civilians who were in his custody.

Pranowo, a retired two-star Army general, is charged with the unlawful arrest of up to 169 civilians, including Muslim politician A.M. Fatwa, and of detaining them at the Military Police Headquarters on Jl. Sultan Agung, Central Jakarta, without warrants.

Pranowo's trial is the second in relation to the case that shocked the nation.

On Sept. 15, eleven active military personnel were brought to the court on charges of crimes against humanity. Another new dossier, that of Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntarsan, the incumbent commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), was submitted to the court later on Tuesday. Sriyanto was a section head of the North Jakarta military command in charge of operations when the bloodbath happened.

Pranowo is the first high-ranking officer to stand trial in the case.

According to the prosecution, the detention period varied from one day to 15 days. It added that due to technical reasons, Pranowo moved all the detainees to another military detention center in Cimanggis, Bogor regency, West Java, and kept them there up to three months.

Prosecutor Roesmanadi said that all of the detainees were crammed into one windowless cell and were deprived contact with their families.

The detainees were also tortured by members of the military police, causing some to suffer serious injuries, Roesmanadi told the court.

"It was on Sept. 13, 1984, or only a day after the bloodshed took place, when Pranowo received a phone call from an intelligence officer, the late Col. Sampurna, asking him to put the Tanjung Priok detainees in his cell.

"The defendant agreed and placed some 169 or at least 125 civilians in one cell, during which his subordinates tortured them," Roesmanadi said, adding that the detainees were not allowed access to lawyers.

Prosecutors charged Pranowo with violating Articles 7 and 42 of the Human Rights Law No. 26/2000 on crimes against humanity.

Violation of the law carries a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of death.

Prosecutors also questioned Pranowo's authority as a military officer to place civilians in his custody, arguing that the authority rested with the police.

"Putting civilians in a military cell is against the Criminal Law Procedures Code," Roesmanadi told the court.

Upon hearing the indictment, Pranowo told the judges that he did not understand why the prosecutors implicated him in the massacre because "the incident took place in North Jakarta, while my office was in Central Jakarta."

Pranowo also asked the prosecutors to identify his subordinates who allegedly tortured the civilians.

Presiding judge Adriana Nurdin asked Pranowo to save his arguments and decided to adjourn the trial until Oct. 7 to hear the defendant's response.

The Tanjung Priok killings were reportedly set off by a military soldier who entered a prayer room (musholla), without obeying certain religious protocols, near the port of Tanjung Priok on Sept. 7, 1984.

He went in to tear down posters that the government considered extremist in nature, but he did not take off his boots, an act considered to be tantamount to desecration in a Muslim holy place.

Witnesses alleged the soldier smeared gutter water on the walls as well. An outraged group of people then burnt the soldier's motorcycle. Four people, including the musholla's administrator, were arrested.

Five days later, Amir Biki, a local Muslim activist, led some 1,500 fellow civilians on a march to the police station to put pressure on the authorities to free the four detainees.

Eyewitnesses said that soldiers opened fire, killing scores of protesters. Biki was among the dead. Many other demonstrators were detained and allegedly tortured in connection with the demonstration.

There is conflicting information on the number of victims in the incident. The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) put the death toll at 33, but military authorities said only nine people were killed. Families of the victims, however, claimed that almost 400 Muslim protesters were killed during the incident.