1998 violence a crime against humanity: Team

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An ad hoc team set up by the National Commission on Human Rights declared on Monday that crimes against humanity were committed during the bloody riots on May 13 and May 14, 1998, and urged the Attorney General's Office to launch an investigation based upon its findings.

It also identified some 20 civilians and military officers as being behind the disturbances.

"The ad hoc team concluded that there were gross human rights violations, including crimes against humanity, during the riots in May 1998," Solahuddin Wahid, who led the ad hoc team investigating the riots, said during a press conference here on Monday.

Solahuddin said that the team had submitted its report to the National Commission on Human Rights and it was expected that it would be forwarded to the Attorney General's Office.

"We hope that the Attorney General's Office will set up an investigating team with a view to bringing prosecutions," he said, adding that the rights commission would continue to monitor the progress made in the case by the Attorney General's Office.

He said the team's investigation revealed that the riots were "widespread and systematic", and therefore met two major criteria for a crime against humanity.

According to the team, the riots were the result of a systematic plan as shown by the fact that the attacks were targeted at a particular ethnic group and that the authorities failed to contain them, thus allowing the riots to spread.

"We confirmed the fact that some Indonesian citizens did not get sufficient legal protection from state officers," said team member M.M. Billah, who also attended the media briefing.

"(Our findings) show that security officers failed to act properly and correctly. There was also a tendency to let the riots occur by not diverting the mobs away from the riot scenes or preventing the riots from spreading," Billah added.

The security authorities' actions, according to the ad hoc team, were intentional as Indonesian Armed Forces' intelligence had earlier predicted possible riots in Jakarta in May 1998.

"The ad hoc team believes that these incidents were not spontaneous acts. They were organized and instigated," said Billah, who is also known for his criticism of the military operation in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

Moreover, Jakarta at the time was subject to two special security operations -- Operasi Mantab Jaya III and Operasi Mantab Brata -- meaning that the city was being guarded by an unusually larger number of security personnel.

Solahuddin declined to name the suspects, citing the need to uphold the presumption of innocence.

"We can't name them, but there are some 20 (officials) involved," he said.

The ad hoc team questioned dozens of victims and witnesses, including a number of police and military officers who were on duty at the time of the riots.

However, some military officials, including Gen. (ret) Wiranto, Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto and Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, refused to respond to the team's inquiries.

In its report, the ad hoc team contended that the suspects were responsible for the gross human rights' violations that occurred during the riots.

Billah said that the disturbances were part of "the repressive methods employed by the New Order regime, which apparently wanted to eliminate all opposition from society."

Solahuddin said he was optimistic that the case would be brought to court, unlike the Trisakti shootings which occurred only days before the May riots.

He said the House of Representatives, which had declared that no gross human rights violations had occurred during the Trisakti shootings, had yet to make any decision on the May riots.

"The Attorney General's Office cannot hide behind the House of Representatives in this case. There is no logical reason not to proceed with the case," Solahuddin said, adding that his team expected to meet with the House soon.

During the May riots -- which followed the fatal shooting of four Trisakti University students who were taking part in a nationwide wave of rallies demanding the resignation of President Soeharto -- hundreds of shops, shopping centers and homes were looted and set ablaze.

No state security officers were around to prevent the crimes, except for those hired by businesspeople to guard their assets before the rampage even started.

Soeharto eventually resigned on May 21 and was succeeded by his vice president, B.J. Habibie.

The riots, which turned into anti-Chinese pogroms, claimed a total of 1,217 lives, according to the Volunteer Team for Humanity.

A fact-finding team led by former National Commission on Human Rights' deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman confirmed the report and found that at least 66 women, mostly of Chinese ethnicity, had been raped.

No action has ever been taken against the perpetrators despite the fact that the country has since seen three different presidents since Soeharto.