Tribunal told of another senior officer's involvement

Tribunal told of another senior officer's involvement

JAKARTA (JP): A military tribunal trying 11 Army Special
Forces (Kopassus) soldiers charged with abducting political
activists in the last months of the Soeharto regime heard
evidence on Tuesday of the involvement of yet another higher-
ranking officer who has yet to be prosecuted.

A witness, First Lt. Mujiono of the Jakarta Police Detective
unit, testified that his superior Lt. Col. Bakat Purwanto
instructed him to pick up three activists who would be handed
over to the East Jakarta Military Command by an unidentified
group of men on March 14 last year.

"A team of four police officers led by Capt. Arismunandar went
to the East Jakarta Military Command in the afternoon of March 14
to pick up someone," Mujiono told the Jakarta Military Court in
Klender, East Jakarta.

He said they waited at the military command until late at
night but nobody showed up.

"We went back on Sunday, March 15 and we found three
blindfolded and handcuffed people already there," Mujiono said
adding that they were Aan Rusdianto, Nezar Patria and Mugianto.

They had been among 23 activists who were abducted by
unidentified men beginning April 1997.

Nine of them eventually resurfaced after weeks of absence and
have spoken of abductions and torture, one was found dead and 13
others are still listed as missing.

"At first, we did not see any signs of torture on their
bodies, but later at the Jakarta Police headquarters, we noticed
wounds on their ankles. It seemed that they had been bound up,"
Mujiono said.

He also said that on March 14, he met "five or six" long-
haired men at the East Jakarta Military Command who identified
themselves as security personnel from the intelligence office of
the Jakarta Regional Military Command on Jl. Kramat in Central
Jakarta.

"But I did not know why they were there nor what they were
going to do," Mujiono said.

He also said he did not recognize any of the 11 defendants.

Another witness, Capt. Sudarso from the East Jakarta Military
Command failed to show up on Tuesday. No explanation was given,
and the court was adjourned until Thursday.

During the previous session on Jan. 28, a witness, First Lt.
Pundit Purnawa, said that his superior Col. Jhon Lalo had
instructed him to prepare a cell for activist Andi Arief on April
16 last year as Arief would be handed over to the police by a
group of unidentified men later that night.

Andi, an activist of the Indonesian Student Solidarity for
Democracy (SMID), a student front organization of the outlawed
People's Democratic Party (PRD), was abducted by a group of
unidentified men in Bandar Lampung on March 28.

The military prosecution had said the higher-ranking officers
could also be summoned to testify.

Human rights activists have described the trial of the 11
Kopassus soldiers as a "farce", saying that it is only a charade
to protect senior military officers and former president
Soeharto.

The prosecution claims the defendants acted on their own
initiatives and the charges put forward in the trial only related
to the nine activists who have reappeared.

Some rights activists have also questioned why the charges did
not mention the torture that the victims have said they were
subjected to.

At the time of the abductions, the defendants were under the
command of Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto who was honorarily
discharged from the military in August for his involvement in the
abductions.

Rights activists have been demanding that Prabowo, now in
Jordan, must be put on trial as he had admitted his involvement
before the Officers' Honor Council in August. (byg)