House to reopen two rights cases

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Responding to public pressure for justice, the House of Representatives said on Monday it would reopen the Trisakti and Semanggi cases, which allegedly involved high-ranking military officers.

Agustin Teras Narang, chairman of House Commission III for law, legislation and human rights, said the commission would soon reopen the cases.

"We have been ordered to reopen the cases and to make another recommendation," Teras said at a hearing with the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) here on Monday.

Four students were shot dead in May 1998 during an antigovernment demonstration at Trisakti University. Massive riots in a number of cities in the country ensued, during which Chinese-Indonesians became the targets of violence. The riots triggered the reform movement that led to president Soeharto stepping down.

The following year, shots were fired into a crowd of student demonstrators in the Semanggi area, a main thoroughfare in Central Jakarta, killing 26 people, mostly students.

The House set up an investigation team in 2000 to probe the incidents, but no indications of gross human right violations were found -- a conclusion that enraged the public.

The alleged perpetrators cited the team's findings in refusing to appear before Komnas HAM for questioning.

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) also refused to set up human rights trial for alleged perpetrators of the Trisakti and Semanggi cases and the May riots.

Komnas HAM chairman Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara demanded on Monday that the House revoke its initial "flawed" conclusion.

He expressed hope that the Attorney General's Office would investigate the cases soon after the House revoked its recommendation.

Responding to the criticism, Panda Nababan who chaired the House's investigation team, conceded on Monday that his team had relied on the mass media for information on the incidents.

"We never visited the locations. We only carried out monitoring. I think we were half-hearted (in our efforts)," Panda said.

Panda revealed that only two of the nine House factions - the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) - concluded that there was gross human rights violation in those incidents. Panda is from the PDI-P faction.

The other factions claimed that there was no gross human rights violations, he added.

Mahfud M.D. and Akil Mochtar from the PKB and the Golkar Party respectively said that the conclusion reached by the House in 1999 should not be used as a definitive reference.

"The Attorney General's Office must investigate the fatal incidents thoroughly, with or without the recommendation of the House," Akil said.