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)