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)