Jakarta – Former military commander Feisal Tanjung gave the order for the deadly 1996 attack on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), a former intelligence official implied yesterday.
Former military intelligence chief Lieutenant General Moetojib said the attack of July 27, 1996, was ordered by the commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI).
Im not accusing the former military commander. Please ask the former military commander. He's still alive, Moetojib told the press after being questioned by a Military Police team investigating the July 27 incident.
But journalists are not in a hurry to talk with the bad-tempered Tanjung. When a photojournalist attempted to take Tanjungs picture last week, the retired general responded by punching him in the guts. And when he was ABRI commander, Tanjung often got angry with journalists and cursed them, referring to them as dogs.
The investigation into the July 27 case has recently been focusing on the substance of a meeting held by former coordinating minister for political and security affairs, Soesilo Soedarman, two days before the attack took place.
Testimonies from retired generals give the impression that former president Soeharto had implicitly asked his generals to put a stop to a free-speech forum that was taking place outside the PDI headquarters on Jalan Diponegoro in Central Jakarta. Soeharto allegedly said the forum should be stopped because it was disturbing public order and had been critical of the government and military.
At that time the PDI headquarters was occupied by supporters of then opposition figurehead Megawati Soekarnoputri. She had been ousted as legitimate party leader at a PDI congress organized in June 1996 by the government and military. She was a replaced by a pro-Soeharto lackey called Soerjadi.
The removal of Megawati was not recognized by her supporters, so the PDI split into two factions: a popular pro-Megawati faction and a farcical pro-Soeharto faction that had virtually no popular support. It was the pro-Megawati forces who were staging the free speech forum.
Moetojib said the July 25 ministerial meeting had only discussed how to harmonize the conflicting PDI camps. But force ended up being used to take over the PDI headquarters. The brutal takeover was not in line with the conclusion of the meeting and Soedarman was very angry at that time, said Moetojib.
He said those who could be held responsible for the operational maneuvers involved in the attack were then Jakarta Military commander Major General Sutiyoso and then Jakarta Police chief Major General Hamami Nata.
Moetojib said there's no way the attack order could have come from the coordinating minister for political and security affairs, or from the defense and security minister [Edi Sudradjat]. The chain of command came from the higher level. It was the military commander, he said.
I cannot accept it if the coordinating minister for political and security affairs is blamed for the incident. I will defend him and take action, he was quoted as saying by Astaga. Moetojib emphasized that military intelligence (Bakin) only provided information on the situation on Jalan Diponegoro in the run-up to the July 27 attack.
Megawati had been elected chairwoman of the PDI at a national congress in Surabaya, East Java, in 1993. Increasing support for Megawati caused anxiety among members of the autocratic Soeharto regime. So they had her ousted in 1996 and replaced with veteran politician Soerjadi.
Analysts say the July 27 attack was part of the Soeharto regimes effort to quash the budding pro-democracy movement. Hired thugs, backed by the military and police, descended upon the PDI building and attacked unarmed civilians.
Activists say dozens of people were killed in the incident and ensuing riots that symbolized the peoples resistance against the autocratic regime. The official death tally was only put at five.