Tanjung Priok case gets prosecutors

JAKARTA: The Attorney General's Office has appointed 14 prosecutors to handle the case of the 1984 Tanjung Priok shooting incident in which at least 33 people died.

At least 14 active and retired military officers, including the incumbent commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), Maj. Gen. Sriyanto, have been named suspects in the case.

On Sept. 12, 1984 soldiers opened fire on antigovernment protesters outside the Tanjung Priok mosque in North Jakarta.

The shooting left 33 dead and 55 injured, according to a probe by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). Families of victims say the number of casualties was much higher.

Sriyanto headed the North Jakarta military operation at the time.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Antasari Azhar said that most of the 14 prosecutors had handled the prosecution in the East Timor human rights tribunal.

"They have had experience with cases on gross human rights abuses at the ad hoc human rights tribunal," he said, referring to the special court set up to try gross human rights violations.

Around 1,000 East Timorese died in the violence that followed East Timor's vote to separate from Indonesia in 1999. The United Nations blamed military-backed militias for the violence.

The tribunal acquitted almost all military and police figures who stood trial for the East Timor violence. Critics blamed the prosecutors for ignoring evidence presented by the UN, among others. -- JP