House asked to play role in probe into May 1998 riots

Tiarma Siboro and Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With the sluggish investigation into the alleged gross human rights abuses during the May 1998 riots, a rights campaigner urged lawmakers to exercise their supervisory function to ensure that the authorities deal with the case speedily and thoroughly.

Asmara Nababan, former secretary-general of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said that the House of Representatives should invite the Attorney General's Office and Komnas HAM "to sit together and discuss the barriers faced by them in handling the case".

"To date, however, we don't know yet whether the new composition of political parties at the House will use its political will to fight for the people," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He was referring to the presence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's new Democratic Party, as well as the reduced number of legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the greater number of seats held by the Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS) in the House.

"(But) I am worried that the current legislators will only take another foolish step like the one taken by their predecessors with regards the Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi II (shooting) incidents," Asmara said.

The House special team issued a verdict in 2001, which declared gross human rights violations did not take place in the 1998 Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi II shootings.

The May 13 to May 15 riots were triggered by the shooting incidents, which killed four students of Trisakti University when they staged rally calling for then president Soeharto to step down.

Based on Komnas HAM's report, anarchy broke out in Jakarta during the riots in which more than 1,000 people were killed, and more than 60 women, mostly Chinese-Indonesians, were gang raped or were victims of other sexual violence in three days of bloodshed, arson and turmoil.

However, none of the military and police officers have been held accountable or sent to prison for the tragedy.

Meanwhile, House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs and human rights, said on Thursday it was reviewing the 2001 verdict and promised to bring a new conclusion to the House plenary session to determine whether they would revoke the verdict.

Speaking before dozens of university students, mostly from Trisakti University, commission deputy Akil Mochtar from the Golkar Party said there were various perspectives and views put forward by the Commission members on whether or not the tragedies involved gross violations.

Akil promised to have a conclusion drawn before the current sitting ends on July 8. He said if the House concluded that the team's verdict should be revoked, the responsibility would then be with the Attorney General's Office to investigate further.

"If the Attorney General's Office says the case files and everything else are complete, it may then propose to establish an ad hoc tribunal to try these cases, which the House will have no reason to refuse," he said.

The university students had came to meet with the legislators with three requests -- to revoke the House special team's 2001 verdict, to establish an ad hoc tribunal, and to have a judicial review of Article 43 (2) Law No. 26/2000 on ad hoc human rights tribunal, which they view politicizes human rights abuse cases.

According to Article 43 of Law No. 26/2000 on human rights, the House has the right to propose the establishment of an ad hoc human rights tribunal which must be endorsed by the government.