Are recent investigations about justice — or about politics?
Since Wahid took charge, Jakarta has broken out in a rash of investigations. The Suharto inquiry had been revived last December after being halted in early October under Wahid’s predecessor B.J. Habibie. On May 18, 24 soldiers and one civilian were sentenced to prison for their part in a massacre last July of an Islamic teacher and his students in Aceh. Two days earlier, the attorney-general’s office had questioned former military chief Wiranto for seven hours. He was among 21 officers identified in late January as responsible for the violence before, during and after East Timor’s Aug. 30 referendum. Meanwhile, since mid-February the national police have been looking into the 1996 government-backed attack on the Jakarta headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction led by then-oppositionist and now Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The inquiry has produced a steady stream of prominent officers and other figures summoned for questioning. Because of the investigation,
