The Trisakti 4 remembered, four years after<\/p>\n
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak
\nand Fabiola Desy Unidjaja
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Fresh roses and bouquets of flowers were carefully placed on
\nSaturday upon the black gravestones belonging to former Trisakti
\nUniversity students Elang Mulya Lesmana and Heri Hartanto, who
\nwere buried side by side in Tanah Kusir cemetery in South
\nJakarta, as well as that of Hendrawan Sie in Kamal cemetery, East
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
Chants and prayers by the parents, relatives, university
\nofficials and several colleagues who could hardly hold back their
\ntears highlighted the modest ceremony held to remember the deaths
\nof the four students as a result of the 1998 shooting at their
\ncampus, an event that led to the resignation of Soeharto.<\/p>\n
The remembrances began earlier this month as the university's
\nextended family laid flowers on the grave of Hafhidin Royan in
\nBandung, West Java.<\/p>\n
It was part of the commemoration of the Trisakti tragedy
\nculminating at the university's campus on Sunday, as the
\nuniversity and other student groups planned to revive the
\npeople's memory of that gray, chaotic evening on May 12 four
\nyears ago, by holding a peaceful vigil in the capital.<\/p>\n
The four were shot dead at their campus after military troops
\nforced them and their fellow demonstrators to disperse from an
\nantigovernment protest that turned violent.<\/p>\n
They are not dubbed as \"the reform heroes\" for nothing since
\ntheir deaths added the fuel to the fire which expanded into a
\nnationwide movement protesting Soeharto's military-style regime.
\nIt also fueled hopes that the nation could become a more
\ndemocratic republic without the existence of a repressive
\nmilitary regime.<\/p>\n
But have their deaths been repaid in full?<\/p>\n
\"Not yet. We better take the Trisakti tragedy as the spirit of
\nreform movement...it will roll on although there are still people
\nwho resist reform and even hamper it. This commemoration is an
\nevent for us to reaffirm our commitment to the development of a
\ncivilized society,\" Trisakti rector Thoby Mutis said during
\nSaturday's ceremonies.<\/p>\n
The Trisakti shooting was followed by widespread rioting,
\nchaos and looting across the country on May 13 and May 14, with
\ncommon criminals and thugs joining in to target Chinese-
\nIndonesians' shops and homes. Many were killed, raped or had
\ntheir houses or businesses burned to the ground.<\/p>\n
It has not yet been made clear to the public as to why
\nsecurity officers seemingly made no attempt to stop the chaos.
\nThe Supreme Court is expected to give its legal opinion on this
\nmatter. But many people believe the security apparatus set out to
\n\"teach\" the public a lesson to the public on how powerful the
\nsecurity institutions can be when they want to act, or in that
\ncase what occurs when they refuse to act to secure the country.<\/p>\n
Within four years, the nation has had three presidents:
\nbureaucrat B.J. Habibie, humanist and activist Abdurrahman \"Gus
\nDur\" Wahid and now the daughter of founding president Sukarno,
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri. It has also seen six different Cabinets.<\/p>\n
But none of the new leaders have taken the initiative to
\ndetermine whether there were human rights abuses in the killings
\nand the riots -- neither against the students or the Chinese-
\nIndonesian victims. Instead, they preferred to see it merely as a
\npart of history or the rebirth of the country.<\/p>\n
Human rights activists have consistently called the targeting
\nof Chinese-Indonesians genocide, and that the government should
\nput a great number of military and police officials on trial.<\/p>\n
According to some, the reform movement seems to have stagnated
\nas very few serious political changes have been made to develop a
\nstrong democracy. Thousands of people throughout the archipelago
\nare fighting against others for a variety of reasons while the
\nmilitary remain extremely powerful despite the phasing-out of
\ntheir dual function in politics.<\/p>\n
It was the Trisakti parents' unrelenting demands for
\ninvestigations of the shooting of their children that persuaded
\nGus Dur's administration to bring the triggermen to a military
\ncourt. But the court's decision was not seen as satisfactory as
\nonly low-ranking personnel, who were merely carrying out their
\nsuperior's orders, were sent to jail.<\/p>\n
Lasmiyati, mother of Heri, said that sentencing the troops did
\nnot solve the case because \"their superiors should be held
\nresponsible for the shootings and brought before the court
\nfirst\".<\/p>\n
Hafhidin's father, Enus Junus, said the efforts to bring the
\ncase to the human rights court was not revenge against the
\nmilitary. \"But if we keep it quiet, then we give a bad precedence
\nwhere in the future the state may use arms to repress their
\nintellectual youths.\"<\/p>\n
The human rights commission completed an investigation into
\nthe tragedy and two other incidents that took place at the
\nSemanggi overpass on Nov. 13, 1998 and on Sept. 24, 1999, in
\nwhich more students and residents were killed.<\/p>\n
In the recommendation to the Attorney General's Office, the
\ncommission underlined that the three incidents are closely
\nrelated to the riots that followed.<\/p>\n
Also present at Saturday's commemoration was the Community of
\nMay Victims' Relatives, the Commission for Missing Persons and
\nVictims of Violence (Kontras), Kalyanamitra and Nusa Bangsa
\nSolidarity (SNB). They issued a joint declaration demanding the
\ngovernment to pay attention to the case.<\/p>\n
Asmara Nababan, secretary-general of the National Commission
\nof Human Rights, expressed his pessimism of the current Attorney
\nGeneral's Office, and said they would probably find another
\nloophole to delay the probe of the Trisakti shooting.<\/p>\n
\"The law does not provide a timeline for the Attorney
\nGeneral's Office in looking at the investigation result from
\nKomnas. That will serve as another excuse to delay the probe,\"
\nAsmara said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
But Komnas was not surprised as it had faced a lot of
\nstumbling blocks in the last four years.<\/p>\n
\"We all knew when we started with this case that we would
\nconstantly be banging our heads against the wall as it involves a
\nlot of political interests,\" he remarked.<\/p>",
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