Witnesses refuse to testify in Kopassus trial

JAKARTA (JP): Two witnesses refused on Tuesday to testify in the trial of eleven Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers charged with abducting political activists in the last months of the Soeharto regime.

The two, Aan Rusdianto, 24, and Desmon J. Mahesa, 33, repeated the moves of two other activists, Pius Lustrilanang and Andi Arief, who in a Jan. 8 hearing refused to testify against the defendants, saying the proceeding was unfair and would not solve the case.

However, the third witness on Tuesday, Haryanto Taslam, 44, of the splintered Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), agreed to give his testimony to the Jakarta Military Court in East Jakarta.

Aan, Desmon and Haryanto were among 23 activists allegedly abducted and detained for weeks by the defendants early last year. Only nine resurfaced. One was found dead and 13 others are still missing.

"I can not yet testify... What is certain is that I am not yet mentally prepared to testify, even more so under oath," Aan told the court.

He said he could not do so until he knew the whereabouts and fate of the 13 missing people.

The trial of the 11 Kopassus soldiers has been blasted by rights groups as a ploy to cover up the involvement of top military officers, and for failing to include charges of torture.

The National Commission on Human Rights has called for the court martial to be halted, saying it appeared to be designed solely to protect the military high command and make scapegoats out of the defendants: a major, seven captains and three sergeants.

Military prosecutors said the defendants had acted on their own initiative.

Aan and another activist, Nezar Patria, were abducted by four plain-clothed men on March 13 evening from the apartment they shared. They were blindfolded and handcuffed and driven to an unknown destination, Nezar told the court last week.

Desmon, justifying his refusal to testify, said he too wanted information on the missing activists first. He also said he did not recognize any of the defendants.

"How can I be expected to testify, to aggravate or lighten the charges, for people that I do not know," Desmon told the court, adding he had met three of the 13 missing activists while being detained at an unknown location.

He also protested that although the Officer's Honor Council probing the abductions last year found three senior Kopassus officers, including Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, a son-in-law of former president Soeharto, guilty of involvement, the officers had not been summoned.

Prabowo, who headed Kopassus at the time of the abductions, was last heard of in Jordan.

Presiding Judge Col. Susanto accepted the refusals, but said the two would be summoned to testify in the future.

Haryanto told the court he was abducted by two men in East Jakarta on March 8, handcuffed and blindfolded, and taken to an unknown location. He was detained there until his release on April 14.

But he was questioned only twice about his political activities, and treated well, he said.

He added he could not recognize any of his captors because he was kept blindfolded in their presence.

"Before my release I was asked to agree not to return immediately to Jakarta but to go to Surabaya first and to tell anyone who asked that I had been touring the region for the party," Haryanto said.

When freed, he was driven around blindfolded for about three hours before being dropped at Husein Sastranegara airport in Bandung. He then flew to Surabaya using a ticket given to him by his captors.

Unlike previous witnesses, he said he was not tortured.

Susanto asked the defendants, sitting beside the defense lawyers in their trademark red berets, if they had any comment on Haryanto's statement.

Each answered that they did not have any comment.

The trial was set to resume on Jan. 26. (byg)