T

he raid on Cebongan Prison and the murder of four prisoners by Army Special Forces (Kopassus) commandos is not a human rights violation, a Yogyakarta lawyers group has said.

The opinion of the lawyers from the provincial chapter of the Indonesian Advocates Association (Peradi) differs from that of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), which has said that the raid and the murders were a gross human rights violation.

'The acts carried out by the 11 Kopassus members were individual actions, done without orders from any institution,' Yogyakarta Peradi secretary, M. Syafei, said on Friday.

The actions of the soldiers were done in the spirit of solidarity, although criminal law did not justify their crimes and the men should be brought to justice, he added.

Syafe'i, who is also chairman of Peradi's Bantul branch, said the soldiers had to be tried in a military court, not a civilian court, in accordance with judicial guidelines.

Peradi also wanted the Yogyakarta Police to resolve the case thought to have sparked the Cebongan homicides: the murder of Kopassus commando First Sgt. Heru Santosa. The detainees shot dead in their cell during the Cebongan raid had been arrested for Heru's murder by the Yogyakarta Police, who dropped their investigation after their death.

'The case must be thoroughly probed and the Yogyakarta Police should not hastily issue an SP3 warrant to terminate the investigation because the four suspects have been killed.'

Syafe'i claimed that 260 Peradi lawyers were willing to represent the 11 commandos.

Separately, the head of the Yogyakarta Regional Office of the Law and Human Rights Ministry, Rusdianto, said that questioning of witnesses in the Cebongan raid had been completed. 'The witnesses have been questioned by the Yogyakarta Military Police Detachment,' Rusdianto told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said that 42 witnesses, comprising 31 inmates and 11 guards, were questioned between April 9 and 17 at the prison by 10 military police investigators.

According to Rusdianto, the witnesses said that they saw armed men enter the prison and kill detainees Hendrik Angel Sahetapi, Yohanes Juan Mambait, Adrianus Candra Galaja and Gameliel Yermianto Rohi Riwu.

'During questioning, five officers from the LPSK [Victim and Witness Protection Agency] were also present,' Rusdianto said.

The LPSK has been protecting the witnesses by deploying officers from the provincial police's Mobile Brigade special operations unit to the prison every night, as well as offering counselling to the prisoners and staff traumatized by the violence of the raid.

'I don't know how many of them will be able to stand up before a court martial,' Rusdianto said.

Cebongan prison warden Sukamto Harto said the questioning proceeded smoothly, claiming that none of the witnesses were afraid.

LPSK deputy head Lies Sulistiani said that the witnesses became more confident after getting protection from LPSK. 'We will provide protection to the witnesses until the court proceedings are over.'

The soldiers are set to stand trial at the Yogyakarta Military Court and have been held at the Diponegoro Military District Command's Military Police headquarters in Semarang, Central Java.