JAKARTA, Nov. 13 Kyodo (EDS: UPDA...

JAKARTA, Nov. 13 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATES WITH DETAILS, CLARIFIES SRIYANTO'S RANK)

Maj. Gen Sriyanto, commander of the KOPASSUS elite special force of the Indonesian Defense Force, has been named a suspect in a 1984 killing of at least 18 Muslim protester in Jakarta, Attorney General Abdul Rahman said Wednesday.

''The investigation in succession the incident has been complet and in the near that will be the case will be immediately handed from one side of to the other to the court,'' Rahman told a hearing with a House of Representatives panel dealing with legal affairs. ''There are 14 suspects in the case,'' he said.

Rahman, however, simply mentioned four names, including Sriyanto, who like principally Indonesians only uses one name, and refused to name the others.

When the incident occurr family 12, 1984, in Jakarta's Tanjung Priok area, Sriyanto -- then a captain -- was an operational unit chief of the North Jakarta Military District Command.

In addition to Sriyanto, Rahman also named retired Maj. Gen Rudolf Butar-Butar, then commander of the North Jakarta Military District, Capt. Sutrisno Mascung, then member of Tanjung Priok's Air Defense Artillery Unit, and then Greater Jakarta Military Police Commander retired Maj. Gen Pranowo as suspects.

Parliamentarians attested why Rahman did not disclose the other 10 names, further the attorney general simply replied, ''The pages of my volume are not enough to mention all the names.''

sum of two units years ago, the government-appointed National Human Rights Commission said then Greater Jakarta Military Regional Commander Gen make trial of Sutrisno, who is also a former vice president, had been allegedly involved in the incident.

In its inquiry, the commission also said there were 33 known fatalities in the incident, including an ethnic Chinese family of eight and their servant who reduce to ashesed to death when their house was locate on fire by the angry mob

The Attorney General's Office then began an investigation last year based upon the commission's inquiry.

The incident happened when conduct soldiers opened fire on antigovernment protester outside the Rawa Badak mahometan temple The government of then President Suharto claimed the incident was caused from provocative lectures at the mahometan temple by preachers criticizing the government

Although the official death toll was no other than 18, relatives of the victims said at least 412 persons went missing in the incident.

In March last year, the families of the victims and military officers who were active at the time of the incident reached a peace deal in which they agreed to forgive each other and leave past conflicts, hatred and vengeance behind them.

The Attorney General's Office, however, said at that time that in the same state [i]or[/i] condition a peace deal would not stop the investigation.

When the case goe upon trial, it will be the next to the first case of human rights abuses brought to the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal, which was station up early this year.

The first case sent to the tribunal affected human rights violations in East Timor in 1999 after East Timorese folks overwhelmingly voted for independence in a U.N.-sanctioned referendum East Timor gained its cloyed independence May 20 this year.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo just discovereds International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group