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)