House may reopen Trisakti, Semanggi shooting incidents
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The House of Representatives (DPR) has announced that it would likely look into all documents relating to the three Trisakti and the Semanggi incidents in 1998 and in 1999 to reopen the cases after increasing pressure from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).
Deputy chairman of House Commission II for legal and home affairs Hamdan Zoelva said here on Tuesday that his commission would study those cases again and would make a proposal to reopen the cases if they were convinced by any new evidence.
"We will study the three cases again with hope that we will find new evidence to allow the House to reopen them," Hamdan said after a hearing with Komnas HAM at the House building on Tuesday.
DPR leaders have assigned Commission II to carry out another investigation into the cases following a recent hearing with the rights body.
During the hearing, the rights body questioned the result of the House's investigation into the bloody 1998 and 1999 melees that proved fatal for dozens of prodemocracy student demonstrators.
The rights body has proposed that the House reopen the case since it found that "gross human rights abuses" occurred by government security units. Human rights activists have called them crimes against humanity.
Four students from Trisakti University were shot and killed when they were rallying in front of their campus in Grogol, West Jakarta, on May 12, 1998, to demand reforms in the administration and the military. At least 16 more students were killed in a bloody clash between student demonstrators and military personnel at the Semanggi toll road off ramp adjacent to Atma Jaya University on Oct. 13, 1998 and ten others were killed in another prodemocracy rally at the same spot on Sept. 24, 1999.
Former officials with the City Police and Military have denied any responsibility and claimed that they did not order their personnel to shoot the students.
Komnas HAM Chairman Abdul Hakim said that the rights body's fact-finding team met with House leaders in October last year and asked them to review its conclusions and proposed the establishment of an ad hoc human rights court to try the alleged rights abusers.
In response to the request, the House leaders assigned House Commission II to assess all documents on the incidents.
During the hearing with the commission, Komnas HAM called on the House to facilitate a meeting involving Komnas HAM, the Attorney General's Office and the DPR to outline procedures for the implementation of Law No. 26/2000 on Human Rights Trials because there had been a difference of opinion on the law between Komnas HAM and the Attorney General's Office.
The disagreement has left the AGO unwilling to follow up on the rights body's findings and recommendations over the three incidents.
Abdul Hakim urged the AGO to become proactive by using the rights body's findings to bring perpetrators in the three incidents to justice.
Human rights issues have been put on the back burner by the government and many leaders now lack the will to do much about the violations, especially since they have busied themselves with getting reelected.