Supersemar statement 'meant for study'

Supersemar statement 'meant for study'

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The defendant in a case over the March 1966
presidential order, known as Supersemar, said in his trial on
Tuesday in Yogyakarta his public statements on the process of the
issuance of the instruction was not meant to be a testimonial,
but was supposed to be material for a scientific study and
discussion in a forum formed by the House of Representatives.

Sukardjo Wilardjito, former member of special security guards
for the late president Sukarno, told the Yogyakarta District
Court, that in his particular case, what he had revealed was not
a crime but merely a difference in opinion between him and the
generals who were witnessing the signing of the Supersemar.

The Supersemar led then Army chief Lt. Gen. Soeharto to power,
ending Sukarno's 21 years of rule.

Sukarno was reportedly forced to sign the Supersemar as he was
unable to handle the country's uproar following a coup attempted
by the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

In August 1998, Sukardjo made public statements that president
Sukarno was threatened at gunpoint by Maj. Gen. Basuki Rahmat and
Maj. Gen. Maraden Panggabean when signing the Supersemar, while
another officer, Brig. Gen. M. Yusuf, presented the draft of the
Supersemar for Sukarno to sign.

Sukardjo is accused of inciting public unrest and is charged
with violating Articles 14 and 15 of Law No 1/1946 which holds a
maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

Accompanied by a team of lawyers from the Yogyakarta Legal Aid
Institute (LBH), Sukardjo, who became crippled in his right leg
while he was in prison during the New Order era, said that only a
military tribunal could try him, claiming that he had never been
officially discharged nor had he ever retired from the military.
His last rank before he was sent to prison in 1966 was second
lieutenant in the Army.

"Yet the person(s) who have lost and falsified it (the
Supersemar) were not brought to court. Why then do I have to
attend this trial?" Sukardjo said, referring to the fact that the
original copy of the Supersemar is missing.

Sukardjo's lawyers then asked the panel of judges, presided
over by Izaac Jurgen, to take the case as a social and historical
fact, not as a crime.

The lawyers also insisted that the Yogyakarta District Court
does not have the right to try their client because the defendant
made the so-called controversial statements at his home in
Gancahan V Village, Sidomulyo, Godean, Sleman.

"Therefore, only the Sleman District Court has the right to
hold the trial," said Budi Hartono, one of the defendant's
lawyers.

Sukardjo had earlier said that all members of the presidential
security guard, including himself, were arrested and accused of
being members of the PKI by Soeharto's New Order administration
in 1966.

The trial was adjourned until next Tuesday to hear the
prosecutor's response to the defendant's objections. (swa)