Wiranto vows to finish Trisakti killing probe

Wiranto vows to finish Trisakti killing probe

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces
Commander Gen. Wiranto pledged on Monday that the military
investigation into the May 12 shootings during which four
Trisakti University students were killed would be completed.

The students were shot on following a peaceful rally.

Wiranto made the pledge to an 11-member delegation of the
victims' parents and Trisakti University staff led by deputy
rector for student affairs I Komang Suka'arsana.

"We do not mean to cover up the shooting incident because we
have an obligation to complete the investigation," Wiranto said
after the meeting, as quoted by one of the parents, Bagus Wiyoga
Nandito. Bagus is the father of Elang Mulya Lesmana, 20. The
other victims were Heri Hartanto, 21, Hafidhin Royan, 22 and
Hendriawan Sie, 21.

The meeting, among other things, revealed that additional
ballistic tests would be conducted on the guns carried by the
security officers on duty on May 12.

Results of earlier ballistic tests on the guns of 10 police
suspects did not match the two bullets collected as evidence.

Quoting Jakarta's military police chief, Col. Hendardji, who
attended the meeting, I Komang Suka'arsana said, "The
investigators will carry out ballistic tests on 560 Steyr and 307
SS-1 rifles."

A source quoted military officers as saying in the meeting
that the two types of rifles were used by both the police mobile
brigade's antiterrorist unit and the Bandung-based Army's Special
Force (Kopassus) Group III for Education and Training.

The meeting was initiated by Wiranto. It followed a student
gathering last week in Cibubur, West Java, which Wiranto
addressed. Students demanded then that he meet the parents of the
shot students.

"We met with Gen. Wiranto for about an hour and asked him to
capture the real shooters; their superiors, who gave the shooting
order; and the mastermind," Bagus told The Jakarta Post.

Bagus said the parents and the university were well aware the
Armed Forces' investigation had not been resolved satisfactorily.

"The military tribunal, which ended last August, only revealed
procedural violations by two police officers," he added.

The Jakarta military tribunal convicted in August First Lt.
Agus Tri Heryanto and Second Lt. Pariyo of the city police mobile
brigade and sentenced them to 10 months and four months in jail
respectively for ordering their men to shoot into a crowd of
demonstrating students last May.

So far, no one has been charged with the actual shootings.

Wiranto was accompanied among others by ABRI Chief of General
Affairs Lt. Gen. Fachrul Razi; the newly appointed chief of the
National Military Police Corps, Maj. Gen. Djasri Marin and
Hendardji. Asked about the timeframe of the ballistic tests,
Hendardji only said they would be "soon."

Also on Monday, about 20 relatives of 14 activists who are
still missing pledged to camp out at the National Military Police
Corps headquarters in Central Jakarta until the military
clarified their fate. "If our children are not found and the
National Military Police Corps chief (Maj. Gen. Djasri Marin)
cannot give us any answer, we will camp out here," Tutty, 62, the
mother of Yani Avri, one of the missing people, said after
meeting Djasri's deputy, Brig. Gen. Iding Alidin. (imn/byg)