Witnesses withdraw statements

JAKARTA: Two witnesses of the bloody 1984 Tanjung Priok incident withdrew on Tuesday their written and signed statements in the dossier against defendant Maj. Gen. (ret) Pranowo.

Syarifudin Rambe and Ahmad Safi said in their testimonies during the trial of Pranowo on Tuesday that they did not suffer torture other than "just casual beatings" during their detention prior to and following the bloody incident.

Investigations carried out by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) revealed that 33 civilians were killed and 55 others injured in the shooting.

They said that their statements in the dossier were "emotionally-charged", and that they "now regret them".

Previously, Rambe, who also gave his testimony during the trial of Col. Sutrisno Mascung and 10 of his men on Monday, said that he had been tortured during his detention.

Rambe and Safi were two of the four Tanjung Priok residents arrested at the district military compound prior to the Sept. 12, 1984 incident.

They were arrested for allegedly burning a soldier's motorcycle. The arrest, however, only increased the anger of the local residents, who were already irked by the soldier's previous acts of desecrating a small mosque in the area. Protests demanding their release finally culminated in the incident, when soldiers guarding the compound opened fire at the protesting crowd.

The two are also proponents and signatories of the "islah" (Islamic reconciliation settlement) between 87 representatives of families of the victims and army officers related to it, including Gen. (ret) Try Sutrisno, who was then chief of the Jakarta military. --JP