Max Lane – While efforts by the state to mount a lawsuit against Indonesia's former dictator collapsed ignominiously last year, the PRD has succeeded in taking Suharto and 12 other generals to court for the unlawful arrest of its members in 1996. This is the only lawsuit now before a court in Indonesia which is exposing the human rights abuses of Suharto and his generals.

The lawsuit was mounted last July by the Partai Rakyat Demokratik (the People's Democratic Party, PRD) before the central Jakarta district court.

The PRD is suing Suharto and 12 other generals for the unlawful arrest of its members in the aftermath of the attack by soldiers and pro-regime thugs on the head office of the PDI, (the Indonesian Democratic Party) in central Jakarta in July 1996.

Despite challenges by the legal team of the accused, urging the court to refuse to allow the lawsuit to proceed, the court decided in late November to let the case go ahead and further hearings have taken place since.

The government of President Abdurrahman Wahid has failed as yet to prepare any case against Suharto for his crimes against humanity. In 2000, charges of corruption were laid against the former dictator but even these collapsed when the court was persuaded by a team of doctors that he was not fit to stand trial.

As for charges against members of the Suharto family, his son Tommy was charged with corruption, found guilty and sentenced to 18 months in prison but disappeared before the police had got around to arresting him and is still in hiding. Only one of Suharto's cronies, timber tycoon Bob Hassan, is now behind bars, serving a six-year sentence for malpractices with reforestation funds.

The PRD lawsuit is therefore unique as a serious effort to put Suharto on trial for human rights abuses. It is the first attempt from within civil society to hold Suharto to account for human rights violations and sets a precedent for future efforts to deal with the grave crimes of the dictator during his 32-year dictatorial regime.

The lawsuit takes as its starting point the violent onslaught in July 1996 against the head office in Jakarta of the PDI which was then controlled by the party's democratically elected leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri. Many people were killed during the attack.

In order to legitimise the attack, the PRD, which was openly supportive of Sukarnoputri, was chosen as the scapegoat because the regime feared that the party could upset Suharto's plans to be elected for a seventh term. A campaign of vilification against the PRD was launched, and it was accused of being the reincarnation of the PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party.

The lawsuit describes the actions of the security forces in arresting and terrorising members of the PRD in Jakarta, Bogor (West Java), Semarang, Ungaran, Solo and Yogyakarta (Central Java), Gresik, Wonokromo, Surabaya, Malang, Mojokerto and Blitar (East Java) and names 58 PRD activists who were arrested during August and September 1996. It describes the stage-managed trials of 13 PRD leaders who received heavy sentences, after being charged under the anti-subversion law.

Besides Suharto, those being sued include General Feisal Tanjung who was then commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Lieutenant-General Syarwan Hamid who was the military head of social and political affairs, Major-General Syamsir Siregar who was head of BIA, the armed forces intelligence agency, Lieutenant-General Dibyo Widodo who was Indonesia's chief of police, Major-General Zacky Anwar Makarim, a director of BIA, Major-General Sutiyoso who was Jakarta military commander (he is now the governor of Jakarta), as well as the minister of justice, the attorney general and the minister of the interior.

The lawsuit is seeking a decision by the court to order the return of confiscated PRD property and documents which were seized unlawfully. The PRD makes a claim for compensation of 516 million rupiah, along with punitive damages of five billion rupiahs, about US$500,000.

Speaking after the first hearing of the case in August, PRD chairperson Budiman Sudjatmiko said: "We want to say that no-one who has committed crimes in the past can escape the law".

Witnesses called by the plaintiffs include several members of the PRD, a member of the PDI and the father of the PRD chairperson.

Sandra Fertasari is a member of the PDI who was a witness to the attack on the head office. She told the court that members of the security forces did indeed take part in the assault; she herself saw that before taking part, they took off their uniforms and put on T-shirts to conceal their true identity. She was later taken into police custody where she was sexually harassed.

Father Sandyawan, a Jesuit priest who gave several PRD leaders sanctuary when they were being sought by the army, told the court about the "shoot-to-kill" order for activists issued by the Jakarta military commander, Major-Gencral Sutiyoso, and the allegation by General Syarwan Hamid that the PRD was a communist organisation.

Father Sandyawan, who then headed the Jakarta Social Institute, was a member of a team which conducted an investigation into the attack on the PDI office.

Budiman's father, H Wartono Karya Utomo, told the court that he and his family had been subjected to terror and intimidation by members of the security forces while his son was being hounded.

His home in Bogor was raided by the army and he himself was accused of being a member of the outlawed PKI, which was a complete fabrication. This allegation led to his being sacked from his job at the Goodyear factory.