House to reopen two rights cases
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.