Witnesses failed to appear at Jakarta Military Tribunal
Witnesses failed to appear at Jakarta Military Tribunal
JAKARTA (JP): Witnesses failed to appear on Tuesday in the
court-martial of 11 Army Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers
charged with kidnapping political activists in the last months of
Soeharto's rule.
Military prosecutor Harom Wijaya told the Jakarta Military
Court in East Jakarta that only nine out of 17 people summoned to
the witness stand have testified before the court.
The eight who have not testified are activists Aan Rusdianto,
Andi Arief, Desmon J. Mahesa, Pius Lustrilanang, Mugianto, Feisol
Reza, a former shop assistant, Syahdan and a former officer of
the National Police Detectives unit, Lt. Col. Kamaludin Lubis.
Aan, Andi, Desmon and Pius have expressed their objections to
testifying against the defendants in the previous sessions saying
that the soldiers were only being made scapegoats to protect
higher military officers. Mugianto and Feisol were scheduled to
testify on Tuesday, along with Syahdan and Kamaludin.
Aan, Andi, Desmon, Pius, Mugianto and Feisol were among 23
activists abducted by unidentified men since April 1997.
Nine of them resurfaced after weeks of absence and spoke of
abductions and torture, one of them was found dead and 13 others
are still listed as missing.
"We believe that Mugianto, Feisol and Syahdan have moved to
new addresses while the Bali Police says that Lt. Col. Kamaludin
is still busy with a number of cases there," Harom said, adding
that Kamaludin has been transferred to Bali.
Kamaludin was among a number of police officers who took Andi
to his cell at the National Police headquarters after he was
handed over to the police by an unidentified group of men on
April 16, 1997.
Andi, an activist of the Indonesian Student Solidarity for
Democracy (SMID), a student wing of the People's Democratic Party
(PRD) -- which was outlawed under former president Soeharto --
was abducted by unidentified men in Bandarlampung on March 28.
Military prosecutors proceeded on Tuesday with reading out the
documents of Mugianto, Feisol and Syahdan to the court.
The court was set to resume on Thursday to hear testimonies
from the witnesses and the defendants.
Military prosecutors have said that higher-ranking officers
could be summoned to testify before the court to shed more light
on the abductions.
Military prosecutors say that the defendants acted on their
own initiatives and the charges only relate to the nine activists
who have reappeared.
Activists have also questioned why the charges did not mention
the torture that the victims have said they were subjected to.
The defendants were under the command of Lt. Gen. Prabowo
Subianto, who was honorarily discharged from the military in
August for his involvement in them.
Activists have been demanding that Prabowo, last known to be
in Jordan, must be put on trial as he had admitted before the
Officer's Honor Council in August that he was involved the
abductions. (byg)