Testimony has yet to connect suspects to Trisakti deaths

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)