'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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