Sentence for trigger-happy soldiers said 'too lenient'

SURABAYA (JP): Relatives of the four Madurese shot dead while protesting against a government project in 1993 are unhappy with the punishment meted out to the trigger-happy soldiers.

The farmers' relatives from Nipah village on Madura Island say the punishment was too lenient and they plan to demonstrate their discontent to the National Commission on Human Rights in Jakarta.

Last month a military tribunal here sentenced four soldiers to an average of two years in jail for their role in the Sept. 25, 1993 shooting of the farmers who tried to stop government officials from taking measurements of their land earmarked to be turned into a dammed reservoir.

Apart from the jail sentence, the four soldiers -- Second Lt. Sudjak, Chief Sgt. M. Said Riyadi, Second Sgt. Bambang Edy Cahyono and Pvt. Siswanto -- were all dismissed from the military. They all intend to appeal.

A source close to the deceaseds' relatives said the military tribunal should have punished the convicts more severely.

"If I had known they (the convicts) would get such lenient terms, I would have chopped them myself at the time of incident," the source said quoting the father of Nindin, one of the slain villagers.

Relatives of the other three victims, Simuki, Muhammad and Mutirah, also voiced their unhappiness.

Plans to build the dam were upsetting local residents, who gathered to protest the land measuring.

On encountering the protest, Sudjak -- the commander of the nearby military post and the detachment involved in the Nipah incident -- and his men opened fire on the crowd.

Ansori, a lawyer from the Surabaya chapter of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute questioned why only low ranking soldiers were tried for the incident that sparked a national and international outcry.

"The court proceedings did not touch on the responsibility of the military corps," he told the Post.

He added that the trial would have been more fair if all related officials, such as the then Sampang regent Lt. Col. Bagus Hinayana and Sampang military district chief Lt. Col. Sugeng Wiyono, had also been charged.

"From the command line point of view, they could also be held responsible for the incident," he said.

Sharing Ansori's opinion is well-known lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi.

"Seen from the command line, the two (Bagus and Sugeng) should have been implicated in the tragedy otherwise, the convicted soldiers looked like scapegoats," he said.

While acknowledging that civil and military courts have principle differences, he said he could understand the victims' discontent at the verdict.

He also said he could not understand how military court officials could objectively handle a case that involves people from their own corps. (15/pan)