Adding insult to injury: Will the victims of

Adding insult to injury: Will the victims of

Justice for Tanjung Priok victims

Farish A Noor, Sinchew Daily, Asia News Network, Selangor

Despite the talk of reform and restoration of democracy, the
history of Indonesia remains a highly contested subject that
remains hostage to the vicissitudes of realpolitik.

Gone are the days of euphoria when the longest self-serving
dictator of Southeast Asia was forced out of office in May 1998.
Then, it was the mass reformasi movement spearheaded by the
country's students and civil society that finally forced the hand
of the ruling clique that had been in power for more than three
decades.

Indonesians, and the people of ASEAN, clamored for justice and
waited nervously for the day that their erstwhile leader would be
hauled into court for numerous charges of human rights abuse,
corruption, nepotism and abuse of power.

But the joy was not destined to last. Almost immediately after
the fall of Soeharto came a succession of floundering governments
that could not muster the political will to do the necessary
thing: Enforce the law impartially and put on trial those who had
rode roughshod over the system for years.

The trial of Soeharto turned out to be a farce in every way,
culminating in the less than decorous conclusion that the
country's authoritarian leader could not be made to stand trial
for the flimsy reason that he was no longer well and that his
memory was failing him.

Then came the half-hearted attempts to bring before the law
the coterie of generals, colonels and senior officers of the old
regime who had served Soeharto dutifully and whose commands were
directly responsible for the atrocious human rights abuses that
took place in places like Aceh, Lampung, Irian and East Timor.

Slowly but surely, the military elite of the old order closed
ranks -- as soldiers are wont to do -- and stood firm. The most
notorious commanders of the old regime, men like Generals Benny
Moerdani, Hendropriyono, et al. were not only acquitted of their
charges -- often on grounds of "lack of evidence" -- and for some
of them the post-Soeharto era turned out to be a second
opportunity to stage a political comeback.

Gen. Hedropriyono, once dubbed "the Butcher of Lampung" was
even elevated to the post of head of anti-terror operations by
none other than former President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The acid test, however, was the trial of the officers and men
who were accused of masterminding what has come to be known as
the Tanjung Priok massacre of 1984.

The Tanjung Priok incident was important for a number of
reasons. For a start, it was the catalyst that sparked the open
war between the Soeharto regime and the rising tide of political
Islam in the country: The killings at Tanjung Priok were the
result of the Indonesian army being asked to put down a Muslim
activists -- demonstration in a quarter of the nation's capital,
and it ultimately led to the killing of dozens of Muslims in
broad daylight.

Secondly, Tanjung Priok has a special place in the collective
consciousness of the Indonesian urban political, media and
cultural elite for the simple reason that this was an instance of
outright violence perpetrated by the state's own armed forces
right in the heart of the nation's capital.

For years the liberal elite of Jakarta could wish away the
stories of brutal attacks, random killings and death squads
roaming the countryside of Aceh, Irian or East Timor: But Tanjung
Priok brought home to them the very real violent and destructive
potential of the Indonesian army, right before their very eyes.

For these reasons, many human rights activists and civil
society actors in Indonesia had hoped that the trial of the
officers and men involved in the Tanjung Priok incident would be
different, and would register a genuine shift from the
politicized trials of the recent past. They were wrong.

Despite the mass publicity given to the trial and the presence
of scores of international observers and legal advisors, the
commander of the Kopassus special unit responsible for the
killings, Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan, was found not guilty last
year.

Then came the equally devastating news this week that the
twelve soldiers initially found guilty for the killings at
Tanjung Prior were also acquitted on the same grounds of lack of
evidence.

Human rights activists and the families and friends of the
victims of the massacre have expressed disbelief at the recent
turn of events. While it was the norm for senior officers to be
let off the hook during the Soeharto era, many had expected
things to change a little in the present "democratic climate."
That even the soldiers were found not guilty has sent out a
simple, though chilling message: The army is not for turning and
the armed forces of Indonesia are once again above the law.

That such developments have gained little attention elsewhere
in the world is hardly surprising. Following the disastrous
performance of the governments of Habibie, Megawati and
Abdurrahman Wahid, the neighboring governments of ASEAN and
Australia wish to see an Indonesia that is stable -- at any
price.

The election of general-turned-President Bambang Susilo
Yudhoyono has been greeted warmly by the country's regional
allies and Big Brother USA, who has always been close at hand to
see that Indonesia maintains its present course as part of the
"war on terror" roadshow.

While the Tanjung Priok incident was used again and again by
the governments of the West to apply diplomatic pressure on
Indonesia in the 1980s and 1990s, it would appear that the very
same Western governments are now prepared to turn a blind eye as
Indonesia's present military-business-political elite erase the
country's sordid past for the sake of domestic political
necessity.

And so once again the relatives and friends of those killed at
Tanjung Priok ask: When will justice be theirs?