VP tells generals to respect summons
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Vice President Hamzah Haz urged on Friday military and police generals to comply with the summonses issued by the Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations (KPP HAM) in connection with three high profile incidents in the capital in 1998 and 1999.
However, Hamzah also said that the summonses should be pertinent and should only be issued based upon strong grounds, as the officers' reputations were at stake.
"They (the generals) should come forward so that they can give their accounts," Hamzah said after attending Friday prayers at Al Falah Mosque in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.
He said that there should be no privileges for the generals, or anybody else, in legal matters.
The Vice President was commenting on the dispute between the inquiry and the military and police, which have refused to allow their officers to appear for questioning. Former armed forces chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto and former Jakarta Police chief Comr. Gen. Hamami Nata failed to turn up on Friday despite receiving their second summonses.
Hamzah played down the fact that only one of the officers who had been summoned had so far appeared for the questioning, saying it was just a matter of coordination between the inquiry and the generals.
He also warned KPP HAM against issuing summonses recklessly.
"Don't just summon (the generals) and then have it turn out that they didn't have anything to do with the case. We're talking about people's reputations here," Hamzah said as quoted by Antara.
KPP HAM was set up last year to investigate the killing of four Trisakti University students during a demonstration on May 12, 1998, which contributed to the fall of the Soeharto regime.
The commission has also investigated the Semanggi I incident, popularly known as 'Black Friday', which occurred during the Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly on Nov. 13, 1998. At least 16 people, including police officers, died in the clash between student demonstrators and the security forces.
At least 10 people were killed in the third incident which occurred between Sept. 23 and Sept. 24, 1999, when thousands of students protested the House of Representatives (DPR)'s deliberation of the state emergency bill.
Police and military officers have thus far defied the KPP HAM summonses, claiming that all human rights violations allegedly committed prior to 2000 were legally excluded from consideration by the rights tribunal.
Based on Law No. 26/2000, the gross human rights violations which occurred before the Law came into effect that are to go before ad hoc tribunals are to be determined by the President based upon the House's recommendation. Nevertheless, such recommendations are not legal binding.
In response to the public's demand for justice, former president Abdurrahman Wahid allowed the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to establish the inquiry under Law No. 39/1999 on human rights, which authorizes Komnas HAM to investigate any case of rights abuse.
The inquiry's chairman, Albert Hasibuan, reiterated that the inquiry would exercise its subpoena rights by sending a letter to the Central Jakarta District Court next week if the officers continued to ignore the second summonses.
"If the generals keep defying the summonses, the court can impose sanctions or fines on them," Albert said without elaboration.
The inquiry's secretary, Usman Hamid, said the officers would risk violating Article 224 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates that the court can sentence a witness who refuse to answer a summons to between six months and nine months in prison.