Hero's father dies of broken heart

Hero's father dies of broken heart

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

"I lost a son ... now I've lost my husband ... because of
them ... these people ... who refuse to take responsibility for
all this violence," the mother of reform hero Elang Mulya
Lesmana, Hiratetty Yoga, mumbled while viewing the remains of her
husband lying before her.

The death of Bagus Yoga Nandita, 51, on Friday afternoon added
to the unremitting grief felt by the people, particularly the
families of the students, brutally shot by security officers
while promoting reforms in 1998 and 1999, and whose cases remain
unresolved.

Bagus, familiarly called Pak Boy, had unrelentingly been
fighting for justice over the killing of their child. He died in
the effort.

Hiratetty, 48, said her husband suffered a psychological
breakdown upon realizing that his search for the truth had
apparently gone nowhere soon after the fourth commemoration of
the May 12, 1998 shooting incident at the Trisakti University
campus in West Jakarta.

Four students died in the shooting, including Elang,
Hendrawan, Hafidin Royan and Hari Hartanto -- all were in their
early 20s -- and were latter dubbed reform heroes as their death
triggered massive protests that led to the downfall of president
Soeharto.

"My husband's health drastically deteriorated after that due
to the refusal by the (political) elite to take the case to a
rights tribunal. He repeatedly made speeches, saying that all
(responsible) generals should be tried for murdering my son.

"Sometimes, he called out my beloved son's name ... Elang,
Elang, come here, look ... the generals are to be tried ...,"
Hiratetty told The Jakarta Post, as she struggled to hold back
the tears.

Sari Ratna Dewi, Hiratetty's first daughter, said her father
had lost some 35 kilograms in body weight since then.

"We tried to persuade him to let go, but I think it was not
that easy ... neither for my father nor for us," she said.

Bagus, a retired civil servant from Bank Indonesia, had been
treated at several hospitals for the last seven months, the last
being Pondok Indah Hospital, South Jakarta.

He died in peace, with all the members of his family
surrounding him and listening to the reading of his last
testament.

"Continue the struggle to bring the perpetrators to trial at
all costs," Hiratetty quoted her husband as saying as she
delivered the message to Usman Hamid of the Commission for
Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

Usman, a colleague of Elang, was in the inquiry team formed by
the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to
investigate the Trisakti shootings and two subsequent incidents
at the Semanggi cloverleaf in Central Jakarta.

Bagus was buried five meters away from Elang's grave at the
Tanah Kusir public cemetery in South Jakarta on Friday.

The Semanggi I and II shooting incidents took place during the
short tenure of B.J. Habibie, Soeharto's successor, as thousands
of students demanded that politicians, including the military,
introduce reforms. The protests were, however, repressed by
security personnel.

Due to mounting public demands, the House of Representatives
established a special committee in 2000 to investigate the cases
and questioned several Army and Police generals, including former
Armed Forces Gen. (ret) Wiranto, former National Police chief
Gen. (ret) Dibyo Widodo, former Jakarta Military commander Maj.
Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, former Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen.
Hamami Nata, and former Army's Strategic Reserves (Kostrad)
commander Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo.

According to Law No. 26/2000 on human rights, the House has
the authority to decide whether a case that occurred before the
law came into effect should be taken to a rights tribunal.
However, the investigation should be in the hands of Komnas HAM,
it says.

The House has concluded there were no gross human rights
violations in the fatal shootings that killed more than 30 young
people, mostly students, and injured dozens others, despite the
allegation by rights campaigners, "such a violation is not an
ordinary crime as it was committed by the state".

Winding path of the Trisakti-Semanggi legal cases

May 12, 1998: Four Trisakti University students are shot
inside the campus.

Nov. 13, 1998: Six protesting students are shot at
Semanggi cloverleaf.

Sep. 24, 1999: University of Indonesia student is shot
near Semanggi cloverleaf.

2000: A fact-finding team is established, the results used
to take low-ranking policemen to the military court for trial.

July 9, 2001: The House of Representatives issues a
recommendation that no human rights abuse was found in the
Trisakti and Semanggi incidents.

Aug. 27, 2001: The National Commission on Human Rights
(Komnas HAM) establishes an inquiry team.

January 2002: Military and Police officers reject the
inquiry team's summonses to be witnesses, while the Military
tribunal closes the trial and send the policemen to three years
and six years in jail.

March 21, 2002: The inquiry team completes its task and names
50 military and police officers as responsible for the three
incidents.

April 22, 2002: Komnas HAM accepts the inquiry team's report
and quickly submits the case to the Attorney General's Office for
prosecution

May to November 2002: Prosecutors repeatedly return the dossier
to Komnas HAM, requesting more information

Nov. 13, 2002: Prosecutor BR Pangaribuan says the office
has no legal basis to proceed with a prosecution due to the
existence of the House's 2001 recommendation.