Indonesian prisoners to be executed

By James Balowski
On August 17, the Indonesian minister of justice, Oetojo Oesman, announced that seven prisoners, including two long-serving political prisoners, are soon to be executed. These will be the first political executions since February 1990, when four soldiers sentenced to death in the late 1960s were killed by firing squad. The two political prisoners are Sergeant-Major I Bungkus and Sergeant-Major Natael Marsudi. Both were members of the palace guard arrested in October 1965 and sentenced to death for their alleged involvement in a coup attempt by the GS-30 Movement and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
This supposed coup served as the pretext for a counter-revolutionary coup, led by then General Suharto, and the massacre of more then a million communist and left "sympathisers" and the incarceration of thousands more.
Oesman made the announcement to journalists at Cipinang high security prison in Jakarta accompanied by the director general of correctional institutions, Baharuddin Lopa — who is also a member of the government's national human rights commission, established in 1994.
In a report carried in the Jawa Pos on August 22, Oesman officially confirmed that Bungkus and Marsudi were to be executed, adding that they had submitted a number of pleas for clemency but these had been refused.
When asked by they were to be executed, given that they had only acted under orders, Oesman replied, "If you relativise everything like that, the foundation of our legal system would be undermined".
Ironically, the announcement was made only 24 hours after three other 1965 prisoners were released after being given a presidential pardon. The oldest of the three, 81-year-old Dr Subandrio, was the former deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister under Indonesia's first president, Sukarno. Omar Dhani, now 71, was the former air force chief. Raden Agung Sutarto, 77, a former intelligence chief, although pardoned, remains seriously ill in hospital. All three were sentenced to death in March 1966 but the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in 1980.

A government spokesperson said that the fact that they were not members of the PKI had been a significant factor in their release. The armed forces warned, however, that the three will be "watched".
Officially, some 19 political prisoners remain in Indonesian jails convicted for their alleged involvement in the 1965 "coup" — all are over 65 years old and suffering from a variety of serious illness. The oldest, Kamba, serving a life sentence in Ujung Pandang prison in South Sulawesi, is now 94 years old, senile and paralysed.
As well as Bungkus and Marsudi, three others are under sentence of death. Sukatno, 84, the general secretary of the PKI's youth organisation, arrested in July 1968 and sentenced in March 1971, and Asep Suryaman, 65, arrested in September 1971 and convicted in August 1975, are both being held in Cipinang Prison. The third is 70-year-old Isnanto, arrested in 1969 and convicted some years later, who is being held in the Tanjung Gusta prison in Medan, North Sumatra.
Three other Cipinang prisoners are serving life sentences: Raden, Abdul Latief (68) and H. Ismail Pranoto (70). Ten others are serving life sentences in other jails: Achmad Dahlan Gani (68) in Banjarmasin and Pudjo Prasetyo (88) in Bali; Manan Effendi (74), Alexander Waraow (76) and Haji Gani Masjkur in Kalisosok Prison in Surabaya; Soedono (84), Raden Soembodo (69) and Suryabrata (77) in the Pamekasan prison on Madura; and Sri Soehardjo (66) in the Padang prison, where H. Adah Djaelani (66) is serving 20 years.
According to information provided to the British human rights organisation Tapol by an ex-political prisoner, 11 others may also be serving long sentences: Joseph Rabidi, Wali and Pujo Sumarno in the Nusakembangan prison in Central Java; Sutan Mansur Pasaribu SH in the Tanjung Moawa prison, Medan; Atmo SH, Robertus Hendry Purnomo SH and Hadan Lubis SH in the Labuhan Ruku prison; Kisaran and Johan Rivai, Y. Suripto and Jayusman in the Padang prison, West Sumatra.
It has also been announced that the government will begin phasing out identity cards stamped with the code "ET" (ex-tapol, ex-political prisoner). There are around 1.3 million ex-tapols in Indonesia today. They are not allowed to work for government departments, must obtain permits to travel within Indonesia and are not permitted to leave the country. Under Indonesian law, a valid ID card must be carried at all times and is required for many day-to-day transactions — leaving ex-political prisoners exposed to discrimination and harassment.
In making the announcement, the coordinating minister for politics and security, Soesilo Soedarman, said "The abolition [of the ET code] does not mean our surveillance of the latent danger of communism is reduced". In recent years however, the regime has had increasing difficulty maintaining the "spectre of communism". This was clearly demonstrated in a survey reported in the weekly magazine Gatra on August 19. Of the 1396 respondents, 57% said that the greatest threat was the growing gap between rich and poor, while only 11.96% said that "latent communism" posted a threat to political stability.