Awaiting justice for May riot, victims ready to forgive

Awaiting justice for May riot, victims ready to forgive

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta

Chinese-Indonesians pressed on Saturday for the prosecution of
the masterminds and perpetrators of the deadly May riots in 1998,
which killed over 1,000 people in Jakarta and other towns.

"We will forgive them only after we know the truth and it
means the perpetrators must be brought to justice," Ong Heru, a
victim of the riots, told a discussion entitled: The May 1998
Tragedy, Shall We Forget It?.

Ong, nearly 70, lost his house and shops during the May 12, 13
and 14 mayhem. His wife's suffered multiple fractures to her legs
when she jumped from the third floor of her burning shop, while
his daughter became an invalid as she too jumped from the third
floor, injuring her spine.

"I want it (the truth) revealed, not because I want to take
revenge. It would affect my children, grandchildren and the
country's future generations," he said.

Benny Satya, chairman of the Indonesian Tionghoa (Chinese)
Association (INTI), shared Ong's view, saying that the demand of
most ethnic Chinese victims was only that the masterminds be
revealed.

"We really want to know what happened at that time. Who did
that and why. Only then would we be able to forgive. If any
Chinese-Indonesian claims that all Chinese-Indonesians have
forgotten it, it's wrong. We are waiting for justice to prevail,"
he told journalists on the sideline of the discussion.

Other participants voiced similar grievances, questioning the
government's lack of political will to resolve the case. They
also expressed concern over whether those linked to the tragedy
would become the country's future leaders.

Activist Ester Indahyani Jusuf, who was the secretary of an ad
hoc team set up by the National Commission on Human Rights
(Komnas HAM) to investigate the riots, told the same forum that
the riots were planned.

She urged the Attorney General's Office to follow up the
team's report by prosecuting those responsible for the incident.

"But, they (prosecutors) keep saying that our report lacks
this, that or the other, or that they do not have approval from
the House of Representatives.

"We have sufficient testimonies from witnesses. What the
prosecutors need to find out is information from those who were
responsible for security at the time," Ester said.

I Ketut Murtika, the Attorney General's Office human rights
division head, said his office was continuing to study the report
that lacked testimonies from former military and police chiefs as
they defied the team's summonses.

Gen. (ret.) Wiranto was the armed forces commander when the
riots devastated Jakarta. He is currently contesting the
presidential election on the Golkar Party' ticket.

He has selected Solahuddin Wahid, who was the Komnas HAM's ad
hoc team chairman, as his running mate. Last week, Solahuddin
resigned as the commission's deputy chairman to accept the
candidacy for vice president.

Probes into the tragedy had in fact started under the
government of B.J. Habibie. But no suspects were named by the
Attorney General's Office as the House decided that gross human
rights abuses were not committed in the May riots.

During the incident that led to president Soeharto's fall on
May 21, 1998, no military or police officers were around to
prevent the devastation, except those hired by the owners of
private enterprises to guard their assets.

This strengthened widespread allegations that the riots were
part of a conspiracy among those in power to quash the people's
movement.

More than 1,200 people were killed during the riots, which
were fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment across the country,
according to the Volunteer Team for Humanity.

Hundreds of shops, shopping centers and homes, particularly in
Chinatown, were looted and torched in the violence that was
triggered by the shooting of four Trisakti University students
during an anti-Soeharto protest on May 12, 1998.