'They forced me to confess': Mutiari

'They forced me to confess': Mutiari

Mutiari, 27, pleaded not guilty but the Sidoarjo district court in East Java last year jailed her for seven months for involvement in the murder of Marsinah, a labor activist. Mutiari was the first victim of a miscarriage of justice exposed last week when the Supreme Court overturned all eight convictions in the case and released seven people from prison.

Prior to her incarceration, Mutiari was the head of the personnel department of PT Catur Putra Surya (CPS), the company for which Marsinah had also worked before she was killed.

Following are excerpts from an interview Mutiari gave to the Jakarta-based Tiras news magazine this week in which she describes her interrogation by the military.

"I did not know so much about Marsinah because I had very scarce information about the employees of the production department of the CPS company. On May 5, 1993, a friend of Marsinah's, who was called Mutmainah, got involved in a quarrel with officers of the regency military command (Kodim) of Sidoarjo (a town southeast of Surabaya where the company is located).

"I was informed on that day that several CPS workers had been summoned to Kodim and that 13 of them had resigned suddenly. The company was asked to pay a severance allowance, a very unusual practice. But Busaeri, a CPS employee who gave me the message from the management, said it was an order from Kodim.

"I really got confused but Pak Yudi Astono, the factory manager, asked me to calculate the allowance, which ranged from Rp 60,000 (US$29.7) to Rp 400,000 each.

"Later we went to the military office to pay the allowances to the leaving workers. I left Kodim at 7.00 p.m.

"On May 7, I was informed that six more workers were about to quit their jobs. We went to again to Kodim to do the same job. I was completely in the dark about the relation between Kodim and PT CPS.

"Between May 7 and 10, Marsinah was nowhere to be seen. What I knew was that she and Mutmainah and Nasiah had discussed the demonstration plan. But Mutmainah was the most outspoken among them. (She is still employed by PT CPS).

"Once, when they were questioned at Kodim, Captain Sugeng threw an ashtray at her face, causing bleeding.

"On May 11, I heard that Marsinah was dead. According to a friend of hers she was buried a day earlier. After that, police officers from Nganjuk came every day to question CPS workers.

"On Oct. 1, an officer arrived at the factory and arrested two employees. Before he answered my question about what had happened the officer dragged me into a waiting armored vehicle.

"'You are a graduate of a law school, aren't you?' he asked me. 'You can pour out all you knowledge about law later.'

"Ayip, the head of the production section, was also dragged and thrown in front of me. I saw his face bleeding. Me, Ayip, a company guard and two other employees were taken to the headquarters of the Bakorstanasda, the provincial security agency, in Surabaya.

"I saw Pak Yudi Susanto, the owner of PT CPS, there. He had clearly been beaten black and blue. 'All of you are bastards,' an officer shouted repeatedly. At 9 p.m. I was asked to enter a room, which looked like a luxurious meeting place.

"Some people took pictures of me with a small sign board showing my name. I was treated like a criminal, although an officer, who looked like the commander of the office, said 'you will just testify as a witness.' I did not understand what kind of witness I would be.

"But the officer said that I would testify about the meeting on May 5 in which a plan to murder Marsinah had been discussed. I was shocked. I told him that there had never been such a meeting.

"Some officers ordered me to confess and started beating me. Then Widayat, CPS driver, entered bringing a diagram of a meeting room. Widayat looked exhausted and weak. He told the officer that it was a meeting discussing the plan to murder Marsinah.

"Widayat also pointed out a chair which he claimed was my seat. I tried to deny the accusation. 'By God, it's not true,' I said. I said I was ready to be killed if it was true.

"Then Captain Kusaeri, commander of the Porong military office, was brought in. He was in military uniform but strangely without any insignia. He said he did not know anything about the case. The officer beat him every time he said 'no' to charges of involvement in the case.

"I kept saying 'no.' An officer told me that if I wanted to confess that I was involved I would be freed soon.

In the evening, Brig. Gen. Farid Zaenuddin, then chief of staff of the East Java Military Command, came to urge me to do the same thing.

"I was not allowed to sleep for three nights during the interrogation, which was marked by repeated orders that I be tortured with electric shocks. But it was just to scare me.

"I defended my innocence and said that I was not afraid even if I had to face death. Altogether I was interrogated for 14 days.

"On the evening of Oct. 14, 1993, the officer produced a warrant. Five days later another officer told me that he would take me home after my evening prayers. But later I found myself at the police office. I cried and resisted the arrest.

"In November 1993, my trial started. In the waiting room earlier in the day the prosecutor and the judge harassed me by saying 'You can do nothing but confess. You are sure to be defeated.' I thought I might be defeated in front of human beings but not before God Almighty.

"On March 10, 1994, the Sidoarjo district court sentenced me to seven months in jail for what it said was my involvement in the Marsinah case." (tis)

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