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Ex-general files complaint against 'Tempo' for May riot reports
The former general's lawyer says that by citing Tim Mawar Tempo was “waking up the zombies”.
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A former member of the Army’s elite Special Forces (Kopassus), Chairawan Kadarsyah Nusyirwan (center), filed a complaint with both the Press Council and the police against Tempo weekly on Tuesday, saying he objected to the magazine’s insinuating he had a role in the May 21 riot in Jakarta. (JP/Delima Meylynda)
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former member of the Army’s elite Special Forces (Kopassus) filed a complaint with both the Press Council and the police against Tempo weekly on Tuesday, saying he objected to the magazine’s insinuating he had a role in the May 21 riot in Jakarta.
Tempo’s investigative reporting linked the riot, which erupted after the General Elections Commission announced the results of the April 17 polls, to former members of the Tim Mawar (Rose Team), a unit in Kopassus blamed for a series of kidnappings and disappearances of activists in the late 1990s.
Although Chairawan Kadarsyah Nusyirwan headed Tim Mawar, he was let off the hook even as some of his 11-member team went to prison and were dismissed from the military. He was temporarily released from duty, but eventually resumed serving, retiring as a major general in 2010.
“I object to Tempo’s front-page cover,” he said as he was about to lodge his complaint at the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Division.
“This is defamation and slander,” he said, demanding that Tempo withdraw the edition, both the print and online versions, from circulation.
He was referring to the magazine’s provocative cover title: "Tim Mawar dan Rusuh Sarinah" (Rose Team and the Sarinah Unrest). Sarinah is the department store opposite the General Elections Supervisory Body office on Jl. Thamrin, which saw some of the fiercest clashes.
His lawyer, Herdiansyah, said that by citing Tim Mawar Tempo was “waking up the zombies”, insisting that the team had been disbanded in 1999. He also said Tempo had cited unclear sources for its report.
