TGPF report on riots gets mixed reactions

JAKARTA (JP): Criticism and praise have greeted the long- awaited findings of the joint fact-finding team on the May riots which blanketed Jakarta and other major cities.

Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander (ABRI) Gen. Wiranto said on Wednesday that the team, known by its acronym TGPF, had breached its authority by providing analysis of the unrest instead of compiling facts.

Wiranto said before a Cabinet meeting that the team was assigned under a decree of five ministers and the attorney general "to gather facts... from findings and testimonies" on the rioting in the capital and Surakarta, Palembang, Bandarlampung, Surabaya and Medan. Results, he said, were to be presented to the officials following its completion.

"Now it has developed into (providing) analysis and I would like to remind that it is not an investigation."

He declined to comment on the team's recommendations.

The team on Tuesday presented its findings to the media in the absence of the attorney general and the ministers, including Wiranto, who said he and the officials were committed to other functions. TGPF is chaired by Marzuki Darusman, a deputy of the National Commission on Human Rights.

Marzuki said the team concluded that the riots, triggered by the shooting of four Trisakti University students on May 12, were a culmination of violent events, including kidnappings.

Marzuki said then Jakarta military commander Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin "did not do his job" given lax security in the capital during the riots. The team confirmed 66 rapes. It cited data from the Volunteers for Humanity which said 1,190 people died in fires in Jakarta, 27 were killed by weapons and 33 others perished in riots outside Jakarta.

Among recommendations were that the government look into a May 14 meeting at the headquarters of the Army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) to better understand the riots.

Wiranto said an investigation already conducted showed "it was an ordinary meeting".

After addressing the Indonesian Moslem Congress in East Jakarta earlier on Wednesday, Wiranto said follow-up of the findings would first involve verification of the report "with analysis by related officials from a number of departments".

Legislators welcomed the findings, urging the Armed Forces and government to heed its recommendations.

"Most importantly, the government should act immediately to follow-up on the findings of the team," said Abu Hasan Sazili, deputy of the ruling Golkar grouping. Zarkasih Nur of the United Development Party faction concurred that the report was significant progress in the effort to resolve lingering issues from the riots. "The government should show political will to act firmly on the findings of the team," he said.

An expatriate who insisted on anonymity was encouraged by the team's forthright conclusion that the riots were stoked by a power struggle among the political elite and were partly instigated by military elements.

"The fact that the riots and rapes were not spontaneously committed by brutal mobs means two things," he said. "First, people here are not as bad after all as observers abroad have thought.

"Second, the probability of recurrence of riots on such a massive scale as those in May is very low."

Meanwhile, the Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa group set up in support of the riot victims stated on Wednesday that it "understood the team's position which is not independent" because military and police officials were among its 17 members.

Its legal advocacy head, Hotma Timbul Hutapea, believed former Jakarta police chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata should also be tried to determine all the parties involved in engineering the riots.

Hendardi, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), said the report showed "results of bargaining" among parties with diverse interests.

He characterized it as "unimaginable" that ABRI team members would have agreed to "suicidal" recommendations which should have targeted the Armed Forces dual social and political role. Hendardi described the latter as the "source of human rights abuses by ABRI". (imn/prb/vin/anr)