Suspects named in Tanjung Priok case

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As many as 14 active and retired military officers, including the incumbent commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) Brig. Gen. Sriyanto, have been declared suspects in the 1984 Tanjung Priok shooting incident.

Attorney General M.A. Rachman told the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission II on legal affairs Wednesday that the servicemen were suspects of gross human rights violations in the Tanjung Priok bloodshed.

"We have finished examining the case against them and we will file the charges with the ad hoc tribunal immediately," Rachman said.

The Tanjung Priok bloodshed took place on Sept. 12, 1984, when soldiers opened fire on antigovernment protesters outside the Tanjung Priok Mosque.

Relatives of the Tanjung Priok victims said the incident claimed over 400 lives, while the military said only 18 people were killed in the bloodshed.

An investigation by the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said that there were 33 known fatalities in the incident and 55 injured.

Aside from Srijanto, other high-ranking military officers declared suspects were Maj. Gen. (ret) Pranowo and Maj. Gen. (ret) Rudolf Butar-Butar.

Capt. Sutrisno Mascung and his 10 subordinates -- whose names were not revealed -- were also declared suspects.

Srijanto, Pranowo, and Butar-Butar would be charged separately, while Sutrisno and his subordinates would be filed under a single dossier, said Rachman.

Butar-Butar was the North Jakarta military commander when the Tanjung Priok riots occurred, and Sriyanto was section head of the North Jakarta military command operation.

L.B. Moerdani and Try Sutrisno, who were military chief and Jakarta military commander, respectively, at the time of the shooting, were conspicuously absent from the list of suspects.

Under Law No. 26/2000 on human rights tribunal, those who have committed a gross human rights violation face a maximum sentence of death.

A presidential decree issued in 2000 on past human rights violations states that an ad hoc court will try only the perpetrators and masterminds of the 1999 East Timor and the 1984 Tanjung Priok human rights cases.

Rahman went on to say that his office had appointed state prosecutors to handle the case, but did not mention any names.

He also said that his office was investigating similar violations in Abepura, Papua; widespread murder in East Timor; the killing of foreign journalist Sanders Thoenes in East Timor in 1999; and the killing of students by snipers at Trisakti University, West Jakarta, and Semanggi, Central Jakarta in 1998.

"These cases are the most definitive cases involving human rights violations that we have probed," Rachman said.

Rachman named two suspects in the Abepura case: Brig. Gen. Police Johny Wainal Usman, former unit commander of the Papua Mobile Brigade (Brimob) and now deputy commander of the National Police Brimob; and Adj. Sr. Comr. Daud Sihombing, former Jayapura Police chief and now Papua Police spokesman.

"Before Nov. 28, we hope to complete our cross-examination," he said.