Rights tribunal charges ex-general for Priok bloodshed

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.