Team formed to probe Tanjung Priok killings

Team formed to probe Tanjung Priok killings

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Marzuki Darusman established on
Monday a team of state prosecutors to investigate the 1984
Tanjung Priok human rights abuse in North Jakarta.

"The investigation, which will start later this week, is based
on an inquiry report from the National Commission on Human Rights
(Komnas HAM). The investigation is due in three months," Marzuki
said after installing the 40 team members at his office.

"The team will first ask the commission to clarify several
items on the report. Meanwhile, the names of the suspects will be
announced after the investigation begins," he said.

The rights commission handed the report to the Attorney
General's Office last month. A source close to the investigation
said the inquiry recommended 23 names of those considered
responsible for the incident.

The 23 suspects include military officers, whose ranks were
between private and general. They reportedly include former vice
president Gen. (ret) Try Sutrisno and former Armed Forces (ABRI)
chief Gen. (ret) L.B. Moerdani.

Try was the Jakarta Military commander at the time of the
incident, while Moerdani was the Armed Forces chief. Try later
served as vice president from 1988 to 1993.

Both Try and Moerdani have repeatedly dismissed accusations
that they instructed troops to fire shots at protesters.

The 1984 violence erupted following religious sermons at the
Tanjung Priok Rawa Badak Mosque, which were critical of the
government.

The rights commission said in its report that there were 33
known fatalities in the incident, including 14 people whose
identities remain unknown and a Chinese-Indonesian family of
eight and their servant. The report also states that at least 55
people were injured during the incident.

The commission concluded that serious human rights violations
occurred, including summary killings, unlawful arrest and
detention, torture, and enforced and involuntarily
disappearances.

The commission concluded that the violence was the
responsibility of those military personnel present on the ground
during the violence, their operational commanders and the
military's top brass at the time of the incident.

The coordinator of the investigation team, M.A. Rachman, said
the team would use the government regulation in lieu of Law No.
1/1991 on the human rights tribunal, pending the President's
approval of a new bill on a human rights trial, which was
endorsed by legislators.

Rachman, who is also the deputy attorney for general crimes,
said the team would first summon several lower-ranking military
officers involved in the case and the victims to testify.

"After we have stronger evidence, we will make public the
names of the suspects," he said.

Rachman said that similar to the investigation on the 1999
human rights abuse in East Timor, the team would be supervised by
human rights experts.

"We will be supervised by three experts from the now defunct
team of experts for the East Timor abuse case," he said. (bby)