Soeharto had no intention of creating July 1996 unrest: Soeyono
JAKARTA (JP): Unlike other retired generals who have testified against former president Soeharto, former Armed Forces (ABRI) chief of general affairs Lt. Gen. (ret) Soeyono said on Tuesday that the country's former strongman did not have a part in the July 27, 1996 violence.
"It was not his (Soeharto's) intention to cause the July 27, 1996 unrest. I followed him for four years... I know his body language. That was not his intention," Soeyono, once an adjutant to Soeharto, told reporters at National Police headquarters.
The general was questioned by National Police investigators as a witness in the investigation into the violent confrontations that occurred after supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) chairman, Soerjadi, forcibly took over the party headquarters from the loyalists of the ousted PDI leader Megawati Soekarnoputri in 1996.
Former Jakarta military commander Lt. Gen. (ret) Sutiyoso and former ABRI chief of sociopolitical affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid testified last Thursday and Friday that the country's former "political patron" was behind the July 1996 violence.
The two did not name the former political patron, but it is believed that they were referring to Soeharto.
Soeyono told police investigators that the Army did not collect funds to finance the operation to secure the capital during the 1996 unrest that spread through the Central Jakarta area.
"We tried to protect the capital. It is not true that the Army approached certain business tycoons here, to ask for hundreds of millions of rupiah for the capital's security," Soeyono said after seven hours of questioning.
Similarly, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Tyasno Sudarto said on Monday that the Army had no official link with the unrest.
Speaking after briefing recruits at the Army Staff and Command School (Seskoad) in Bandung, West Java, Tyasno said the Army, as a component of the country's defense and security, only carried out its duties; just as it did in Aceh, East Timor, Irian Jaya and Kalimantan.
"Operationally, the Army just followed instructions. There was a legal basis in the hands of the Army Headquarters," he said without elaborating.
Meanwhile, incumbent PDI chairman Budi Hardjono called on both the government and the National Police on Monday to arrest the masterminds of the July 27 incident, and not just the "small- fry".
Budi said Soeharto also should be questioned, since he must have known of the plan before its execution.
"If the police are truly serious about getting answers to this whole incident, that's the only way," Budi said.
The National Commission on Human Rights recorded that five people were killed, 149 were injured and 23 went missing in the confrontations that followed the forcible takeover of PDI headquarters.
Meanwhile in Bandung, Minister of Defense and Security Juwono Sudarsono and Indonesian Military Chief of Staff Admiral Widodo said all parties must wait for the results of police questioning of former military officers and civilian officials with knowledge of the incident.
The investigations of some generals for their alleged involvement in the incident are part of the legal process, Juwono and Widodo said in a separate interview after addressing a "Strategic Forum" meeting at the Army Staff and Command School (Seskoad) on Tuesday.
The forum is being held as a consequence of a recent meeting of top Army brass in Jakarta.
The forum is expected to develop valuable input for the changes in the Army's defense system in line with the Military's internal reforms. The forum is scheduled to end on May 10. (25/sur/ylt/imn)