Soerjadi's men threw stones first: Witnesses

JAKARTA (JP): Two witnesses for the defendants in a hearing from the 27 July riot told the Central Jakarta District Court yesterday that the supporters of Soerjadi, the officially-backed Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) leader, were the first to throw stones at the PDI headquarters when they tried to take it off from their rivals.

Witness H. Basir Harianto, a PDI South Jakarta branch official, said he was on his way to a mosque early in the morning on July 27 when he passed the PDI headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta.

Basir said he stopped to see what was happening because the area was cordoned off by security officers.

"I heard people, who were pouring out of trucks and wearing red T-shirt and head bands, shouting and condemning Soerjadi," he said.

"'Damn Soerjadi, we have been told to guard the land but here we are made to fight our own brethren," Basir quoted the mob as saying.

The witness said he also heard several men in black uniforms and others with military style haircuts ordering the people wearing red T-shirts to take the building over because "you have been paid for this job."

According to Basir, upon hearing the instruction the angry people started throwing stones at the headquarters and pulling down the fence.

"However, there was no reaction from the people inside the building," he said.

Meanwhile, in another trial involving Megawati's supporters, witness Dr. Jarot Hersamsi, the doctor who was in charge of medical services at the PDI headquarters, testified he entered the PDI building on July 27 but could not see anything because it was dark.

"My foot trampled on something like part of human being's body but there was no reaction at all," he said.

He said he heard a commotion like everything was being damaged. He also heard people shouting: "Don't hit back."

People who he helped were then carried out by police. He said he thought they were taken to the Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital. "But when I went to the hospital, I found only a man treated for a dog's bite," he said.

Conflicting

On Tuesday, two police officers taking the witness stand gave conflicting statements, and said they had forgotten the incident's details.

Witness Dodi Suhendar repeatedly denied his own statements about who stoned whom during the riot and where he arrested the defendants.

The witness especially changed his testimony after the defense lawyers reminded him the defendants had given a different version.

"I have forgotten who cast the first stone at whom in the fracas," he said repeatedly. Suhendar said the same when he was asked to go into details about the incident.

After denying many parts of his own testimony, Suhendar said the truth was in the testimony he gave police interrogators rather than what he had earlier told the court.

Edi Sularso, another police officer who testified, said he had forgotten many details about the people involved in the riot.

"I do not remember whether there were people in red T-shirts or not," he said responding to the lawyers's question.

Other witnesses had earlier testified that they were recruited to support Soerjadi and given red T-shirts by an unidentified man. (08)