Prabowo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Prabowo Subianto is a highly controversial Indonesian military man and politician. As Suharto's son-in-law, he was an influential man under the New Order administration. Even outside the boundaries of Indonesia itself, he was considered a likely heir presumptive - as indicated, for example, by the fact that he was said to be "lionized by his American counterparts as a future national leader" ^[1].

The 1998 Revolution cut short his career, and he is accused of having instigated various "riots, plunderings, rapes and murders".^[2] Similar accusations were made of his efforts to preserve Indonesian rule in East Timor. The controversial special forces unit Kopassus, which he commanded between 1995 and 1998, was implicated in these alleged crimes.

Contents 1 Pre-1998 career 2 Alleged crimes in 1998 2.1 "Terror Squads" in East Timor 2.2 Detentions, torture and the killing of dissidents 2.3 Fomenting anti-Chinese riots ("The May Chaos") 3 Fall from grace 4 References

[edit] Pre-1998 career

Prabowo is the son of former finance minister Sumitro Djojohadikusumo. His brother, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, was the controller of one of Indonesia's larger conglomerates, the Tirtamas Group, until it went bankrupt during the 1997-98 economic crisis. He graduated from the Indonsian Military Academy in 1974 together with others who would gain senior positions such as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who would later become a prominent reform-minded general and be elected President of Indonesia in 2004.

Most of Prabowo's career was spent in the Special Forces, largely in East Timor. He was assigned there on various positions, ever more senior, in 1976, 1978, [1983 and 1988. In the latter year, he had been relieved of his command by General Benny Murdani, on charges of "abuse of authority".^{[citation needed]}

Still, as a Lieutenant-General in command of the special forces unit Kopassus between December 1995 and March 1998, Prabowo returned to East Timor. As remarked by Prof. Ronald Palmer of George Washington University, former US Ambassador to Malaysia, "[Prabowo] turned East Timor into a personal fief and a training ground for Special Forces black operations. He extended his protection to the notorious East Timor 'Ninja' criminals and used them in extra-legal operations involving torture, extortion, murder, kidnapping, etc. in other regions of the nation, before and after he become Special Forces commander in 1995" ^[3]

By 1998, Prabowo had built up a strong power base inside the army. Though General Wiranto was Minister of Security and Defense and the highest commander of ABRI (Indonesian military), in many ways he seemed only a titular commander or "puppet", while Prabowo held the de facto power over the military.^{[citation needed]} The orders for the army generals came directly from top - from President Suharto, Prabowo's father in law, with whom he had a direct link bypassing Wiranto.^{[citation needed]} Also, most of the vital posts - in the Army in general and the strategic capital city operational forces in particular - were occupied by Prabowo's close associates, including Major General Sjafie Sjamsoeddin, Major General Kivlan Zen, Major General Muchdi Purwopranjono.

[edit] Alleged crimes in 1998

The scope of Prabowo's personal involvement in the use of brute force, during the Suharto regime's last-ditch attempt to stop the 1998 pro-democracy reform movement, was never clarified in any court of law or authoritative investigation. The probes conducted in Indonesia by a human rights panel led by Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman were "unable to find conclusive proof against him".^{[citation needed]}

Nevertheless, in 2000, Prabowo "made legal history" as being the first person denied entry to enter the United States under the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.^{[citation needed]}

A senior US official told The Sunday Times that a major reason for that decision - "taken after considerable deliberations" -was "a reasonable belief that [Prabowo] was involved in the riots which devastated Jakarta in 1998" and that "witnesses had testified to his involvement in torture and the organizing of rapes during the May riots, both being crimes covered under the [UN] convention".^[4] (Previous to the 1998 revolution, Prabowo had been welcome in the US, and his son was studying in Boston.)

[edit] "Terror Squads" in East Timor

There are serious accusations of human rights violations concerning Prabowo's career in East Timor. For example, the Australia-based East Timor International Support Center demanded that Prabowo be prosecuted at the International War Crimes Tribunal "for the atrocities committed in East Timor by Kopassus under his command". Specifically, the human rights group charged that^[5]

Prabowo has been implicated in the control of 'ninja squads', operated by the paramilitary groups in East Timor, which have been used by Kopassus and other elements of the military to terrorise and torture East Timorese suspected of supporting the pro-independence resistance.

According to the group, "leaked documents on actual ABRI troop numbers in East Timor indicate the existence of 13 paramilitary squads and contradicts ABRI's long-time claims of having no links with paramilitary groups in East Timor". Further, "the documents name groups like Team Alpha and Team Saka, which are known terror squads in the Indonesian-occupied territory, and support claims that [these groups] were supported by Kopassus, which was then under the command of Prabowo.

The numerous kidnappings, disappearances, torture and killings by instruments of the state, to keep Suharto in power and to consolidate ABRI's presence and control over East Timor, can be traced back to Prabowo.

[edit] Detentions, torture and the killing of dissidents

In Indonesian political debate, attention centered more on the accusations linking Prabowo with acts committed in the heart of Indonesia itself, during the final year of the Suharto Regime, and especially in during the Jakarta Riots of May 1998, and targeting groups - such as the followers of Megawati Sukarnoputri - which came to prominence following 1998.

Prabowo was accused of involvement in "the kidnappings, tortures, abuses, and murders" of anti-Suharto intellectuals and activists.^{[citation needed]} Such operations, according to accusations, were mostly implemented using Prabowo's loyalists within the Indonesian Army, especially its elite unit Kopassus.^{[citation needed]} Many of the alleged victims are still missing and believed dead. Among them are poet and artist Wiji Tukul, as well as Bimo Petrus Anugerah, Ismail, Mochammad Yusuf, Sonny, Ryan (Yani) Afri, Ucok Munandar Siahaan, Yadin Muhyidin, Noval Said Alkatiri, Herman Hendrawan, Suyat, Deddy Hamdun, and Hendra Hambali.^{[citation needed]}

However, some of those detained and tortured did survive to tell the tale, including Pius Lustri Lanang, Desmon Mahesa and Haryanto Taslam. There are also the present members of IKOHI (Ikatan Keluarga Orang Hilang Indonesia - Indonesian Association of Missing People's Families), among whom are Mugiyanto, Aan Rusdiyanto, Nezar Patria, Faisol Reza, Rahardjo Waluyo Jati, and Andi Arif. Later, when Prabowo was called upon by General Wiranto to account for his acts, he admitted his involvement in the arrests of nine activists - taking care to name nine who are still alive, but denying responsibility for detainess who remain missing.^{[citation needed]} He claimed that the operation had not been reported to the top command of ABRI (Indonesian Armed Forces) because 'he didn't want to stir them up'.^{[citation needed]}

In fact the 'arrests' of the nine activists resembled kidnapping more than than a formal arrest under a warrant and due procedure. For example Andi Arief, the Chairperson of Indonesian Students' Solidarity for Democracy (SMID), told: "Until now I do not know which unit [was involved]. I was abducted from my sister's store in Lampung on March 28, 1998. I was forced and dragged to follow the kidnappers. I saw there were three Kijang vans outside the store and I was thrown into one of the vans. I was immediately handcuffed and blindfolded with a black cloth. The kidnappers inside the car were wearing ski masks. My head was pushed down and I was stuck in this cowering position for two hours".)^[6]

In their testimonies, former detainees told of being tortured for days in an unindentified location, allgedly a military camp according to descriptions in the victims' testimonies. Most of their time was spent blindfolded, while being forced to answer repeated questions, mainly concerning their political activities. They were kicked, punched, terrorized physically and mentally, and given electric shocks (including in vital areas of the body)^[7]

[edit] Fomenting anti-Chinese riots ("The May Chaos")

Aside from the abuse of pro-democracy activists, Prabowo is also believed to have used Kopassus - and the army in general, which was "under his de facto control" - as the instrument of "a field-exercise in triggering chaos".^{[citation needed]} Such "exercises" during 1997 and 1998 mostly targeted the Indonesian-Chinese minority.^{[citation needed]}

The following arguments were brought up in support of the assertion that Prabowo and Kopassus were responsible for the sowing of chaos and the attacks on the Indonesian Chinese:

1. One of the worst outbreaks occurred at the city of Solo, Central Java, with the headquarters of Kopasus located just a few miles southwest of the city - but its officers had taken no action to help the overwhelmed law enforcement authorities in the city. From this can be concluded that either Kopasus was passively letting the angry mob rampage in the city - or worse, was actively masterminding the spread of chaos in Solo.^{[citation needed]}
2. In many cases of looting and arson, both at the capital Jakarta and Solo, witnesses testified to the presence of rioters carrying sophisticated weapons, such as flame throwers - nearly impossible for ordinary civilians to obtain, but easily available in military armouries.
3. Many witnesses - from among both the victims and the looters themselves - told of the outbreak of riots being triggered by the appearance of strangers, who came by motorbikes and distributed swords and Molotov cocktails to the forming mobs. These stangers were "well built and had short cropped hair" and had tattoos. A fact finding team from the Indonesian Human Rights Commission fell short of explicitly stating that these strangers were actually soldiers, but privately several members of the team have mentioned the riots were a virtual a repeat of the 1974 Malari riots, where complicity of Opsus (Operasi Khusus -- Special Intelligence Operations) under the command of Gen. Ali Moertopo had been later admitted by Moertopo himself. ^[8].
4. There were also testimonies of trained snipers, apparently from the army, involved in the Trisakti Incident, which was the prelude to the "May Chaos" and riots. It was allegedly these snipers who shot at Trisakti University students and killed four of them.^{[citation needed]}
5. Prabowo's involvement in fomenting the May Chaos was later clearly affirmed in the conclusions of the TGPF (Combined Team of Facts Finders), which were accepted by the US State Department. Robert Rubin, then a senior member of the Clinton Administration stated that the conclusions were accountable. Moreover, Prabowo's invovement in the riots was also asserted in the The independent research carried out by R.J. May and Geoff Forrester (former Vice-Secretary of the Commerce and Foreign Department of Australia )^[9].

(See also: Jakarta Riots of May 1998.)

[edit] Fall from grace

General Wiranto apparently realised that the chaos was fatally undermining his formal authority and underlining Prabowo's actual control - and that the main source of the chaos were the supposed army peacekeepers.^{[citation needed]} On May 14, 1998 Wiranto took the decisive action of decoying Prabowo and his associates to a supposed army top officers' conference at Malang, East Java. In his absence Wiranto brought the Marines from East Java to West Java and Central Java to ease the chaos.^{[citation needed]} The riots were then quickly brought under control. This is taken as the conclusive proof that it was indeed Prabowo who had been masterminding the riots and the chaos, and that taking him out of the 'operational zone' and introducing uninvolved troops was sufficient to end the chaos.^{[citation needed]}

The fall of Suharto and his replacement by the Vice-President Habibie deprived Prabowo of his most important power source, though for a short time he and his associates still retained their positions in the army. In his recently published memoires ^[10] Habibie discloses that during his early days in power, there were wild movements of Army units around the Presidential Palace, organized by Prabowo. However, if Prabowo was preparing for a coup, he did not get the chance to implement these plans.

As described by Palmer, the fall of Prabowo was essentially accomplished in the space of three days^[11]: "On May 21 Prabowo met Habibie and demanded that Wiranto be replaced by his own man Gen. Subagiyo; however, Habibie decided instead to appoint Wiranto minister of defense and security, as well as TNI commander. Wiranto then fired Prabowo as commander of the Strategic Reserve in the night of May 22. Frustrated, Prabowo took a detachment of Special Forces troops to Habibie’s home to repeat the demands he had made the previous day. He was turned away brusquely by Habibie’s head of personal security, Major Gen. Sintong Panjaitan, a Murdani man who had been disgraced by Prabowo in 1991. Prabowo wandered off into the night with his troops. He was summoned by Wiranto on May 23 and reassigned to Bandung".

In August, a "court of honor" found Prabowo guilty of "exceeding orders" in the kidnapping of anti-Suharto activists in 1998 - the only charge of which he was ever formally found guilty - expelled him altogether from the army, but imposed no term of imprisonment. He then went into a kind of "voluntary exile" in Jordan, which he was forced to leave and go to Germany and thence to Bangkok.

In May 2000, Prabowo returned to Jakarta, gave several press interviews to Indonesian and international papers, in which he attempted to clear his name, and was received for a cordial visit at the home of then Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his 1974 classmate from the Military Academy - who had distinguished himself as the leader of the pro-reform officer faction in 1998 and who was at the time on his way up, gathering the popularity which would get him elected President in 2004.

It is not known if Prabowo had gotten any reassuance prior to his return to Indonesia, but his meeting with such a prominent reformer as Yudhoyono, plus the fact that no move was made to prosecute him helped give the impression that Prabowo was "effecively untouchable".

By end of 2003, Prabowo - who still had some support in the Suharto-created ruling party Golkar - felt bold enough to try running for President. He was, however, defeated by his former military superior Wiranto in the party congress, convened to nominate a candidate for the Presidency.

The most recent political move to which Prabowo's name was linked came in 2005, when he was believed to be involved in the spreading of the "Wiranto AFI VCD". That controversial cassette had an attractive cover photo from AFI (a popular Indonesian talent show similar to American Idol), but contained a supposed documentation of the May 1998 Chaos which placed most of the blame on Wiranto - thus implicitly clearing Prabowo of the blame. However, Prabowo's responsibility for this cassette was not proved, either.

[edit] References

1. ^ Susan Sim, The Straits Times 30 December 2000 [1]
2. ^ Loren Ryter (1998). "Pemuda Pancasila: The Last Loyalist Free Men of Suharto's Order". Indonesia 66: 45–73. 
3. ^ Ronald D. Palmer, "From Repression to Reform? Indonesian Politics and the Military, 1997-1999", in "American Diplomacy", Winter 2000 [2]; Douglas Kammen, "Notes on the Transformation of the East Timor Military command and Implications for the U.S.", Indonesia 67, April 1999, Cornell Modern Indonesia Project.
4. ^ The Sunday Times article quoted in "Prabowo Denied US Visa", Straits Times, 30 December 2000. According to the article, investigations in Indonseia itself had failed to find conclusive proof against Prabowo due to "intimidation of witnesses and investigators" [3].
5. ^ "Prosecute Prabowo for crimes against the Timorese people", Media Release from The East Timor International Support Center, Darwin, Australia, 4 November 1998 [4]
6. ^ Testimony of Andi Arif [5]
7. ^ Andi Arif, op. cit.
8. ^ "Indonesia: Five years after May 1998, those responsible for the atrocities remain at large", Press Release of the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), 03-2003 [6]
9. ^ Geoff Forrester and R.J. May, The Fall of Soeharto, C.Hurst & Co., London,1998
10. ^ Jusuf Habibie, "Detik-detik yang Menentukan: Jalan Panjang Indonesia Menuju Demokrasi" (roughly translated as "Decisive Seconds: Indonesia's Long Way to Democracy")
11. ^ Palmer, op.cit.

• On March 2000, Asiaweek published a comprehensive investigative report on Prabowo's career.