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Gen. Prabowo or Prabowo Subianto was Suharto's son-in-law who allegedly staged the chaos, plunderings, rapings, and murders during the 1998 Reformation. He is the son of former finance minister, Sumitro Djojohadikusumo and his brother, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, was the controller of one of Indonesia's larger conglomerates, the Tirtamas Group, before it went bankrupt during the 1997-98 economic crisis.

Prabowo was considered opportunist and sadistic figure. Back at the East Timor, he was involved in many human rights violation at the conflict zone. But most of his crimes were done during the 1998 Reformation. By the time, he was involved in the kidnappings, tortures, abuses, and murders over the anti-Suharto intellectuals and activists. The sadistic operations were mostly done using his men and loyalists within the Indonesian Army, especially its elite unit, Kopassus. Many of the victims were still missing and believed to be dead by now, including poet and artist Wiji Tukul, and Bimo Petrus Anugerah, Ismail, Mochammad Yusuf, Sonny, Ryan or Yani Afri, Ucok Munandar Siahaan, Yadin Muhyidin, Noval Said Alkatiri, Herman Hendrawan, Suyat, Deddy Hamdun, dan Hendra Hambali. But some of his victims were still alive to tell the story, including Pius Lustri Lanang, Desmon Mahesa, Haryanto Taslam, and those who are now members of IKOHI (Ikatan Keluarga Orang Hilang Indonesia - Indonesian association of family of the missing people), which are Mugiyanto, Aan Rusdiyanto, Nezar Patria, Faisol Reza, Rahardjo Waluyo Jati, dan Andi Arif. When Prabowo was called by Armed Forces General Wiranto to explain his act, he admitted his involvement in the 'arrests' of 9 activists (the 9 people who are still alive by now), not including the missing activists. He said that the operation wasn't reported to the top leaders of ABRI (Indonesian Armed Forces) because he 'didn't want to stir them up'. In fact the 'arrests' over the 9 activists, an act admitted by Prabowo himself, were not an 'arrest', there was no warrant, there was no normal prochedure, the detainers wore masks, while the victims were blindfolded and handcuffed on the way to the detaining camp - more like kidnapped rather than arrested. In the mysterious detaining office (which purportedly a military camp, based on the vitcims' testimonial), the victims were tortured for days, most of their times were spent blidnfolded while forced to answer repeated questions. They were kicked, punched, terrorized physically and mentally, electrified (including in vital areas of body)Testimony of Andi Arif

Beside the abuses over the activists, Prabowo, Kopasus, and also his- in de facto -controlled Army were also believed to be the field-executor in triggering chaos during this time, 1997 and 1998, which mostly targeting the minority race of Indonesian-Chinese. This theory was supported by many facts:

• 1. One of the worst chaos occurred at the city of Solo, Central Java. While, the headquarters of Kopasus was just a few miles southwest of the city. This at least conclude that: either the Kopasus (which in that scale of chaos supposed to be supporting the overwhelmed polices to stabilize the condition), was passively letting the angry mob rampaged the city, or worse, Kopasus was the field-mastermind behind the chaos of the city.
• 2. By May 14th 1998, Minister of Security and Defense and the highest commander of ABRI ( Indonesian military), General Wiranto seemed to understand the situation and the crooks behind the mess. He understood that the main sources of the chaos was actually the supposed-to-be peacekeepers, the Army. And he understood that in de facto condition, he was maybe weaker than Prabowo, as he was only somekind of puppet leader established by Suharto at the post. So, he brilliantly asked for an army top officials ceremony at Malang,East Java because he believed that this summit could pull out the chaos-masterminds from the chaos zones. At the same day, Wiranto brought the Marines from East Java to West Java and Central Java to ease the chaos. Miraculously, the chaos decreased overnight. The next day, the chaos stopped. At another side, Prabowo publicly stated his opposing stance against Wiranto's move, especially the summit, and he is still angry about this summit until now. This case could brought speculation theory that the summit at East Java forced Prabowo to leave his 'operation zone', which decreased the scale of the chaos.
• 3. Some witnesses said that in many plunderings, pillages, and arsons that occurred at Jakarta, the capital city, and also at Solo, Central Java, there were few men who used sophisticated tools - which nearly impossible to be possessed by ordinary civilians, such as flame-shooting weapons. In many cases, witnesses, either the pillagers or the victims, stated that before a chaos in an area happened, there were some unknown strangers which triggered the chaos - their characteristics were: first, they had a 'trained'(shaped up) physical appearance; second, they had tattoos; and third, they had short (military-style) hair. They came by motorbikes and brought swords and Molotov cocktails.
• 4. Witnesses claimed that they saw snipers or trained riflemen who were also Army forces during the Trisakti Incident - the prologue of the May chaos. Those snipers were the shooters of the University students that were killed in the Incident (finally 6 students died).

(These theories were mostly based on and supported by some documentations, archives, and even evidences from: 1)Geoff Forrester and R.J. May, The Fall of Soeharto. London: C.Hurst&Co.,1998 - Geoff Forrester was a former vice-secretary of Commerce and Foreign Department of Australia. 2)Conclusions of the TGPF (Combined Team of Facts Finders), which clearly expressed Prabowo's involvement in the chaos. The conclusions were accepted by the United States government as US Foreign Affairs Department through Robert Rubin stated that the conclusions were accountable.)

Prabowo's true ambition was exposed further by a recently published book entitled 'Detik-detik yang Menentukan: Jalan Panjang Indonesia Menuju Demokrasi' (roughly translated into Decisive Seconds: Indonesia's Long Way to Democracy). It was written Habibie, who was Indonesian Vice-President during the May chaos and then President after Suharto resigned also by May. Habibie exposed that in the early days of his power, there was wild movement of Army around his palace, which was organized by Prabowo (the most reasonable explanation was that Prabowo was preparing for coup by the time) - but the plan failed as General Wiranto reported the movement quickly to Habibie and the President removed Prabowo and many of his associates from their posts.

Even by now, after Suharto had resigned, Prabowo is still considered a powerful man, and pretty untouchable one. By now, he was never put to trial for crimes he allegedly committed. By end of 2003, Prabowo, who still had support in the Golkar, daringly, without any shame, ran for President. But he was defeated by his former superior (and former rival) Wiranto in the party's congress to decide the party's representative for President candidacy. And by now, Prabowo is still active in the politic and still waiting for a good opportunity to seize. Last year, he was believed to be involved in the spreading of "Wiranto AFI VCD", it was a VCD with cover of AFI , but consisted a documentation VCD of chaos of May 1998, and the documentation was mostly blaming the chaos to Wiranto. (although it has to be set clear that Wiranto by the time was just 'official' leader, but all of the commands came directly from top - from the President; and also, Prabowo by the time was believed to own more field power than Wiranto as he had close ties with the Suharto himself. By the time the May 1998 chaos occurred,most of the vital posts in the Army and in the capital city operational forces were occupied by Prabowo's close associates by the time, such as Maj.General Sjafie Sjamsoeddin, Maj.General Kivlan Zen, Maj.General Muchdi Purwopranjono, etc).

• Living people