Tanjung Priok's last defendants get up to three years

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The last 11 defendants in the bloody 1984 Tanjung Priok incident were sentenced to two and three years in prison on Friday, just weeks after their superiors were acquitted of all charges.

Capt. Sutrisno Mascung and 10 soldiers were declared guilty of committing crimes against humanity for opening fire on a group of protesters, killing at least 24 people.

"The first defendant is sentenced to three years in prison and the second to 11th defendants are sentenced to two years in prison respectively," said Judge Andi Samsar Nganro at the Central Jakarta District Court.

The first defendant was Sutrisno, who was the commander of the Air Defense Artillery Battalion from the North Jakarta District Military Command, while the others were his subordinates when the incident took place in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, on Sept. 12, 1984.

"The firing by the troops was not an act of self-defense, but intentional murder," said Andi. He said the masses lost control after facing armed troops.

Maj. Gen. (ret) Pranowo and Maj. Gen. Sriyanto -- currently chief of the country's Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) -- were acquitted by the same court two weeks ago as they were not proven guilty of committing gross human rights violations.

Maj. Gen. (ret) Rudolph Adolph Butar-butar, then a lieutenant colonel and head of the North Jakarta District Military Command, was sentenced to 10-year prison term. He remains free pending appeal.

Both Pranowo and Sriyanto were Sutrisno's superiors, being the police commander of the Jakarta Military Command and the head of North Jakarta Military district operational unit respectively.

In Sriyanto's trial, the shooting was said to be "unplanned and unavoidable" and "was not an attack as it was to protect several vital facilities".

The sentences handed down to Sutrisno and his soldiers were much lower than the minimum 10 years stipulated in Law No. 26/2000 on the human rights court. Earlier, prosecutor Widodo Supriyadi demanded 10 years in prison for the soldiers respectively.

Judge Binsar Gultom said considerations in giving lower sentences were the ishlah and differing opinions among judges.

Ishlah was a peace agreement between the military and relatives of the Tanjung Priok victims in March 2001.

However, legal expert Luhut Pangaribuan told The Jakarta Post that a consideration such as ishlah could not be used to reduce the minimum sentence.

"Ishlah itself is still a controversy. Only a few agreed with the ishlah so it could not be said to represent all the victims of the Tanjung Priok incident," he said.

Luhut said the sentence only showed that courts still believed in the old theory of making subordinates scapegoats.

"The sentence is disappointing. It might only be an effort to still people's disappointment," he said.

Last defendants of Tanjung Priok case

1. Capt. Sutrisno Mascung former commander of air defense

artillery battalion

Sentence: 3 years in prison

2. Chief Corp. Asrori former member of the Jakarta Military

Command

Sentence: 2 years in prison

3. Chief Corp. Siswoyo idem

4. Sgt. Maj. Abdul Halim idem

5. Second Lt. Zulfata idem

6. Chief Sgt. Sumitro idem

7. Chief Sgt. Sofyan Hadi idem

8. Chief Corp. Prayogi idem

9. Chief Corp. Winarko idem

10. Chief Corp. Idrus idem

11. Second Sgt. Muhson idem