Prabowo’s Testimony on May 12 Incident at Trisakti University
22 October 2003 09:06 WIB
Prabowo later said that after hearing the report, he immediately ordered Sjafri to see the victims’ bodies in person.
According to Prabowo, the shooting of Trisakti students was probably due to the resentment felt by the anti-riots squad as two days prior to the incident, two police captains had allegedly been murdered by students in Bogor. “ At that time, the squad had lost their discipline. Scorching weather and students’ cursing them also made them even more depressed,” Prabowo said.
Prabowo said he didn’t have a clear understanding of what had been going on at Trisakti University’s campus at that time. He added that he didn’t even know then where his troops were stationed. He only knew that all Kostrad’s operational assistants were on guard at the Jakarta Military Command posts. “That’s why I only found out about the incident from Mr. Sjafri later that evening,” Prabowo said.
According to Prabowo, the incident also gave him premonition that then President Suharto would soon step down from his post. “That night, I said to my self, ‘this is the end of Suharto Regime’,” he said.
Prabowo admitted he was very shocked by the Trisakti incident, especially since it was followed by uncontrollable security situation all over Indonesia. “It was quite a big shock to me as an Indonesian Military personnel whose duty was to maintain the security stability in Indonesia,” he said.