Ary Hermawan and M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Former Army chief Gen. (ret) Ryamizard Rayacudu is on the list of people to be investigated in connection with the recent discovery of an arms stash in the house of a deceased army logistics officer, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Air Chief Marshall Djoko Suyanto said Friday.
"I believe he (Ryamizard) will heed our summons as we believe he will truly uphold his integrity as a nationalist and a former army chief," Suyanto told reporters on Friday.
Suyanto said Ryamizard would be one of a number of high-ranking officers questioned in relation to the weapons found at the house of Brig. Gen. Koesmayadi.
"No special privileges will be granted even to high-ranking officers in this investigation," he said. He added that he expected the probe to be completed by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, lawmakers at the House of Representatives disagreed over how to conduct their own probe of the illegal arms.
During a weekly discussion organized by the press on Friday, lawmakers Happy Bone Zulkarnaen of the Golkar Party, Effendy Simbolon of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and Ade Daud Nasution of the Reform Star Party offered contrasting views on how to uncover possible irregularities within the TNI.
Happy said the recent leak of arms-related documents signed by Koesmayadi was unethical as it could be an effort to blackmail the TNI into bowing to a certain political agenda.
"I suspect that the documents were leaked by insiders who have been marginalized. I also doubt the documents' authenticity. I think we all have to look into how the documents were made available to the public," Happy said.
Happy said that the contents and validity of the documents were of lesser significance.
Copies of the documents circulated among lawmakers and quickly became a subject of hot debate during a recent hearing of Commission I on information, defense and foreign affairs with Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono, Army Chief Gen. Djoko Santoso and Suyanto.
In the documents, dated June 14, 2002, Koesmayadi, then an army colonel, ordered 40 weapons complete with ammunition. The order had approval from his superiors, including the Army Inspectorate General. The purchase was made through a broker, M.I. Tobing of CV Adian Nalambok.
Suyanto snapped up the documents, saying they were confidential and may have been deliberately leaked by someone below him. Ade, the Commission I lawmaker who brought the documents to light, said during the discussion that what mattered was not whether the documents were leaked but the validity of their contents.
"The documents should be investigated and lawmakers should not be afraid to bring such documents to light, since we are protected by the law," he said. Effendy alleged the leaking of the documents was part of a plot to divert attention from the Koesmayadi case.