TGPF report on riots gets mixed reactions

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)