Trisakti team to HK for another ballistics test
Trisakti team to HK for another ballistics test
JAKARTA (JP): A fact-finding team looking into the May 1998
Trisakti incident will soon leave for Hong Kong to follow the
final process of ballistics tests before the case involving the
shooting of four Trisakti University students could be brought
before a military tribunal, a member of the team said on Tuesday.
Usman Hamid said the team, which is headed by Col. Hendardji
who was the Jakarta military police chief at the time of the
incident, would ask a private ballistics examiner agency in Hong
Kong to conduct further ballistics tests.
"The agency's executives can also testify in the military
court to explain their ballistics report," said Usman, who also
chairs the Trisakti University Student Presidium (PMUT) fact-
finding team.
He said Hendardji's team, whose members are from the PMUT, the
Indonesian Police central forensics laboratory (Puslabfor), the
Indonesia military police, the metallurgy laboratory of the
Bandung Institute of Technology and state Pindad military
equipment-maker, decided to go to Hong Kong after a similar test
conducted in Canada proved insufficient.
He said experts of the Canadian Forensic Technologies WAI
Inc., which conducted ballistics tests on three bullets related
to the shooting incident, had refused to testify in court.
"The Canadian firm refused to further involve itself in the
country's internal matters, saying it was just a producer of
ballistics equipment and tests," Usman, who also oversaw the
tests in Canada from May 18 to May 21 this year, said.
He said the experts from Hong Kong ballistics examiner agency
could explain to the military court the results of ballistics
tests conducted by the Canadian firm.
"We will soon leave for Hong Kong. We are just waiting for Pak
Hendardji who is presently in Japan," Usman told reporters at the
Jakarta Legal Aid Institute.
He said the tests on the bullets, two of which were taken from
the dead bodies of students Hendriawan Sie and Hari Hartanto
revealed that the bullets were fired from SS-1 and Steyr AUG-P
rifles.
The May 12 shooting incident sparked massive riots in the city
in the following days, followed by the forced resignation of
president Soeharto on May 21.
In August last year, a military tribunal sentenced one police
officer to 10 months in jail and another to four months for
ordering their men to shoot into a crowd of student
demonstrators.
At the institute office on Tuesday, Usman and several
activists declared the establishment of Solidaritas Korban
Kekerasan Negara (Victims of State Violence Solidarity).
The organization urged the government to continue
investigating and reveal several past tragedies which claimed
lives.(jun)