JAKARTA: The Indonesian army yesterday admitted that its special forces stormed a jail and shot dead four prisoners who were awaiting trial accused of killing their superior officer.
Nine members of the Special Forces Command confessed to carrying out the revenge killings shortly after midnight on March 23 at a central Java jail, said Brigadier General Unggul Yudhoyono, who led a probe into the killings.
The prisoners were accused of beating and stabbing to death the soldiers’ superior officer, Heru Santoso, at a nightclub in Yogyakarta, central Java, several days earlier as he reportedly tried to break up a fight. Rights groups hailed the admission of guilt, as the army has rarely made such confessions despite being regularly accused of the killing and abuse of civilians, particularly in restive eastern Papua.
The military probe “deserves applause but also comes as a surprise because in the history of the military such findings are rare,” said the head of the Setara Institute of Peace and Democracy, Hendardi. AFP
