Two reporters to be questioned

YOGYAKARTA: Police planned on Monday to summon two reporters from the local Bernas daily as witnesses in their questioning of Soekardjo Wilardjito -- a former aide of Sukarno who claimed that the founding president was intimidated into relinquishing power to Soeharto.

Yogyakarta police chief Col. Bani Siswono also said that a number of other witnesses had been summoned and questioned. The two reporters were the first to report Soekardjo's claim.

However, the director of Yogyakarta Legal Aid Office, Budi Santoso, said the two reporters had every right not to meet the summons.

"The journalistic code of ethics states they can refuse the police summons. Their profession obligates them to protect their sources," he said.

"If police want to summon reporters as witnesses in a case, they should abide by the existing mechanism. Whether or not their summons is met depends entirely on the professional organization of which the reporters are members," he added.

Journalists Putut Wiryawan and Setia Krisna confirmed they have received the summons, but Putut said the documents should have been addressed to their chief editor.

"Reports that are published in a newspaper are the responsibility of the chief editor, not the reporters," he said.

Soekardjo has claimed that on March 11, 1966, he saw four (not three as widely stated in historical books) generals visiting Sukarno at the Bogor Presidential Palace.

Soekardjo also claimed to have seen two general threatening Sukarno into signing a document which granted wide-ranged power to then Army minister Soeharto to take various steps to restore order in the country. Indonesia was at the time traumatized by a bloody attempted coup blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Soeharto dissolved and outlawed the party and its affiliates. (23/440)