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'Tim Mawar' back in spotlight
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Black smoke rises in the Slipi area of West Jakarta on the afternoon of May 22. The smoke came from fires lit during post-election riots that started on the previous night. (JP/Donny Fernando)
T
he infamous Tim Mawar (Rose Team) of the Army’s elite Special Forces (Kopassus) is back in the spotlight following a report by Tempo weekly linking a former member of the unit to last month’s post-election riots in Jakarta.
Tim Mawar was previously implicated in a series of kidnappings and disappearances of pro-democracy activists in the late 1990s, when the current chairman of the Gerindra Party, Prabowo Subianto, was heading Kopassus.
Tempo’s report, entitled “Rose Team and the Sarinah Unrest”, revealed that former Tim Mawar member Fauka Noor Farid played a key part in mobilizing the protests that resulted in violence and rioting between the evening of May 21 and the early hours of May 23.
According to the report, Fauka, who is also a member of Gerindra, arranged meetings to discuss the protests with other members of Garda Prabowo - a Prabowo support group that Fauka founded and heads.
A transcript of a conversation between Fauka and fellow Prabowo supporter Dahlia Zein provided to Tempo by the police also indicated that Fauka applauded the “chaos” that ensued after the protests, saying it would be even better if there were fatalities.
Fauka has denied the veracity of the transcripts, as well as any involvement in planning the protests.
Prabowo’s official campaign team has also denied any involvement in the riots and washed its hands of both Fauka and Dahlia.
