Yogie questioned over July 27 incident

Yogie questioned over July 27 incident

JAKARTA (JP): Former home affairs minister Moch. Yogie S.M.
was grilled for about seven hours on Friday by a joint military-
police team over the violent takeover of the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters on July 27, 1996.

Yogie, who is widely believed to be the one who engineered the
PDI's party congress in June that year to oust the elected
chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri, refused to talk much about
the questioning.

"I was only questioned as a witness since I attended the
congress and the coordinative ministerial meeting on politics and
security affairs," Yogie told reporters before rushing to his
car.

Yogie was referring to a ministerial meeting which was held
two days before the bloody attack which concluded that the
ongoing free speech forum at the PDI headquarters should be
stopped since it had caused public disorder.

Yogie's lawyer Maj. Nurazizah said the meeting concluded that
participants at the forum should be persuaded to stop their
actions.

Nurazizah also said Yogie attended the congress as he had been
ordered by former president Soeharto to be there.

"Former president Soeharto ordered Yogie to open and close the
congress," Nurazizah told reporters.

Following the congress, a mob, allegedly backed by elements in
the police and military, violently attacked the headquarters on
Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta which at that time was occupied
by supporters of Megawati, now Vice President and chairperson of
PDI's splinter party, PDI Perjuangan (Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle).

Prior to the attack, Megawati's supporters had been holding
free-speech forums, at the headquarters, condemning the regime of
Soeharto, the ruling power at that time.

The violence, which involved supporters of a PDI breakaway
faction led by Soerjadi, left five dead -- according to official
records -- with 23 others reportedly still missing.

The attack triggered mass unrest in Central Jakarta.

On Thursday, police officially named 11 military and seven
police officers as suspects in the case.

They include former chief of the then Indonesian Armed Forces
(ABRI) sociopolitical affairs Lt. Gen. (ret) Syarwan Hamid;
former chief of Jakarta Military Command Lt. Gen. (ret) Sutiyoso,
who is currently Jakarta's governor; former chief of the Armed
Forces Intelligence (BIA) Maj. Gen. Zacky Anwar Makarim; and
former city police chief Insp. Gen. Hamami Nata.

Separately on Friday, Sutiyoso refused to comment on his
status as a suspect in the case saying he had yet to receive a
formal notice on the matter.

"I only found out about it from the newspapers but the
investigation team has yet to inform me officially," Sutiyoso
told reporters at a police function in the Monas area in Central
Jakarta.

The governor refused to comment on calls for him to be
temporarily relieved of his official duties as he would have to
prepare for the case. (jaw/dja)