Suspects named in Tanjung Priok case
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.