Testimony has yet to connect suspects to Trisakti deaths

JAKARTA (JP): Four police officers summoned yesterday by prosecutors in the military tribunal investigating the Trisakti shooting said that neither of the defendants had shot the four victims.

Sworn in under their respective religious oaths, the witnesses also insisted that none of the police officers at the scene had guns loaded with life ammunition.

West Jakarta Police chief Lt. Col. Timur Pradopo, the field commander on the fateful day, told the court that troops from West Jakarta 0503 Military District and Jakarta Military Command were also deployed at the university.

"I do not know the exact number of military personnel because my responsibilities lay only with the police squads," he said.

Timur said none of the police personnel had been issued with live ammunition.

"Each officer had their guns loaded with three blank bullets and 12 rubber bullets," he said.

Timur said that he, the West Jakarta Military District Commander Lt. Col. Amril Amir and head of security at the university Ari Gunarsa were standing between crowds of demonstrators in front of a building formerly owned by West Jakarta Mayoralty on Jl. S. Parman when shots were fired.

"Police officers were trying to herd students back onto the campus and I was stuck in the middle of the crowd. I ordered the police squads to stop shooting," he said.

Only police personnel in his immediate vicinity obeyed the order, he said, adding that the gunfire lasted for 30 minutes from 5:40 p.m. to 6: 10 p.m.

Timur, however, was unable to say whether or not the gunshots were warning shots and who fired them.

"I don't know. I didn't see. I only heard the shots," he said.

When presiding judge Col. Sudji Suradi and prosecutors pressed him further on the fatal shootings that killed four students and injured many others, Timur replied:

"I tell you again, I do not know who shot the four students. But I can tell you this, neither of the defendants nor I were at the flyover in front of Trisakti. We were all busy on the streets," he explained.

The second witness, Sgt. Cecep Dadang S., commander of the police Mobile Brigade group, said he was standing on Jl. S. Parman when he heard shots fired.

"I received an order to open fire from my company commander (defendant First Lt. Agus Tri Heryanto).

I fired my weapon towards the crowd. I was sure that it was loaded with three blanks bullets and 12 rubber bullets. We checked it during the morning briefing," Cecep told the court.

When asked by defense lawyers about his experience of handling riots, Cecep said that he had frequently been in the situation.

"I've done it many times, Sir."

"Do you know the difference between firing live ammunition and rubber bullets?" asked one of the lawyers.

"Yes I know that, Sir. We use rubber bullets to herd protesters, in this case, the students. My squads were not armed with live ammunition," he added.

Cecep also said that none of the police officers went across the pedestrian bridge close to the university compound where most of the dead and injured students were found.

"We were standing in front of the building which used to belong to the West Jakarta mayoralty office, some distance from the campus," he said.

He admitted that he heard shots after squads had been ordered to stop shooting.

"I do not know who was firing, but I'm sure it was none of the personnel in my group because we had run out of ammunition," he said.

Timur's and Cecep's statements were backed up by the final two witnesses, Second Sgt. Sunarto and Private Arwan Saleh Siregar, both of whom are members of the police Mobile Brigade.

"I thought at that time (when the shootings took place) that the protest was over.

I took the opportunity to relax for a while. I was sitting near police vehicles at about 5:40 p.m. when I heard gunfire," Arwan said.

He said he heard a small number of shots, but did not know where they came from.

Meanwhile, Second Sgt. Sunarto, another group commander, said that none of his personnel were standing on the flyover.

"We were busy on the street. Members of the public and students were mixing and we were trying to herd the students back onto the campus and separate them from the angry crowds," he said.

In the aftermath of the May 12 incident, several Trisakti students said that they saw uniformed members of the security forces firing shots from the flyover.

During the fourth session of the military tribunal yesterday, presiding judge Sudji agreed not to charge the defendants with causing the death of the four students, as requested by defense lawyers.

"We can understand and accept defense lawyers' objections to the indictment and I, therefore, order the prosecutors to erase the statement 'causing the death of the four students' from their letter of indictment," Sudji told the court.

However, he said the defendants would be still charged under Article 103 of the Military Penal Code for committing an undisciplined act.

Sudji adjourned the trial until today, when six more witnesses are to be brought before the court. (edt)