Justice on trial as the 1998 Semanggi shootings remembered
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The capital went into mourning on Nov. 13, 1998, when 12 people were killed and dozens of others were injured, mostly by gunfire, during clashes between antigovernment protesters led by students and heavily armed police officers and soldiers. But the case has not gone to trial yet.
Although its case files, along with those of two other shooting cases of students, are in the hands of the Attorney General's Office, the investigation has not started yet due to a decision by legislators that no human rights violations occurred during the three incidents.
"The Attorney General's Office gave the decision as its reason to keep returning the case files to us for further correction," Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, the chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said on Tuesday.
He was speaking at a discussion at Atma Jaya Catholic University titled "Counting the Days of the Semanggi Tragedy", which was organized by Atma Jaya Catholic University to commemorate the tragedy. The discussion was attended by those who were present at the incident and the relatives of the victims.
House of Representatives' member Firman Jaya Daely, human rights campaigner Asmara Nababan, social observer Hilmar Farid and cultural observer Mudji Sutrisno were also speakers at the discussion.
They all said the prosecutors were hiding behind the decision and were reluctant to investigate the involvement of high-ranking military and police officials in the incidents.
Firman said that the House's decision should be ignored because it was not made in accordance with existing Law No. 26/2000 on human rights trials, which stipulates that the House should make a recommendation to the president before establishing an ad hoc human rights trial for a specific case. This recommendation should have been made according to the results of investigations conducted by the Human Rights Commission, he said.
"However, the decision was made by voting long before Komnas HAM held an inquiry. I suggest that the prosecutors go on with the probe, especially because they have the authority to force witnesses to show up for questioning.
"After the prosecutors draw a conclusion on whether there were human rights violations, the House will ask the government to set up a tribunal," Firman said.
Komnas HAM has questioned several people connected with the shooting deaths of four Trisakti University students on May 12, 1998 while protesting against then president Soeharto inside the university compound and the two incidents that took place at the Semanggi overpass on Nov. 13, 1998 and Sept. 24, 1999, in which more students and residents were killed.
A rain of bullets hit several people, including students who had gathered in front of the Atma Jaya campus after they tried in vain to stop a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). The victims included Sigit Prasetyo, 18, of YAI Accountant College, Bernardus R. Norman Irawan, or Wawan, 20, of Atma Jaya, and Teddy Madani of the Indonesian Technology Institute in Serpong, Tangerang.
Two others, Muzamil Djoko Purwanto and Abdullah, both from the University of Indonesia, died while in hospital after suffering from severe head injuries.
Police said that they had used rubber bullets and blanks.
Both the police and military refused to meet Komnas HAM's summonses for an inquiry, arguing that a military court had heard the case and several soldiers had been sentenced.
Wawan's father, Arif Priyadi, said the investigation into the cases would not be aimed at taking revenge on the perpetrators, but "to avoid more lives of the young generation from being brutally taken by the authorities".