Jakarta – The Judicial Commission promised Tuesday to investigate the judges who acquitted two military generals of all charges in connection with the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre where troops shot dead up to 100 people.
A group representing the survivors and victims' families has requested the commission investigate the decisions of judges at an ad hoc human rights tribunal and the Supreme Court, the two bodies that heard the case.
Commission chairman Busyro Muqoddas said the investigation would decide whether the judges violated their code of ethics when hearing the cases.
"We will examine whether they were professional in carrying out their duties. The judges must uphold their code of ethics by making their verdicts impartially based on the principles of justice," he said.
In 2004, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by prosecutors for it to convict Maj. Gen (ret) Pranowo, then Jakarta Military Police chief, and Maj. Gen Sriyanto, the former operations chief of the North Jakarta military command, of gross human rights violations in the case. Earlier in August 2003, an ad hoc human rights tribunal similarly acquitted the two generals.
The two were in command when their troops shot dead dozens of Muslim activists during a violent protest in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, on Sept. 12.
Official figures say 24 people were killed in the shooting and 54 were injured. However, testimonies from survivors and victims' family members indicate that more than 100 people may have died.
Pranowo was also accused of allowing the torture of demonstrators while they were held in military detention. Busyro said the commission would question witnesses of the incident when reviewing the decisions.
The panel of Supreme Court justices that presided over the trial of Sriyanto and Pranowo was led by Andriani Nurdin, while the trial at the human rights tribunal was chaired by Iskandar Kamil.
Members of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) helped the victims lodge their request in the form of a Kontras report Tuesday.
Kontras coordinator Usman Hamid said he was suspicious of the courts' verdicts. "There was no transparency at all in the legal process. We were unable to follow the Supreme Court's review of the case because the justices did not let us know about its progress," he said. Judges in both courts were imprecise and blinkered in their search for truth, he said.
In its report to the commission, Kontras pointed out that at the lower court level, judges had neglected important evidence and violated the law by permitting witnesses that had withdrawn their cases against the state.
The Supreme Court justices, who should have noted the irregularities in the lower court's handling of the case, were also oblivious, he said.
One of those detained by soldiers, Ratono, told the commission of his abduction and torture. "They kidnapped me and forced me to leave my nine-month old child. Then they shocked my friends and I with electricity."