No justice found in Trisakti, Semanggi cases

No justice found in Trisakti, Semanggi cases

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The continued defiance by military and police officers of a
summons issued by the Human Rights Commission of Enquiry (KPP
HAM) investigating the Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi II
incidents has failed to dishearten the parents of the students
killed in the three shooting incidents.

The parents, who have established the Alliance for the Victims
of State Violence (AKKRA), told The Jakarta Post on Friday that
they continued to cling to their hopes that one day justice would
be done.

They also expressed the hope that their children's sacrifice
would not be in vain, and that comprehensive reforms would be
eventually implemented.

Sumarsih, the mother of Bernardus R. Norman Irmawan, a student
from Atma Jaya Catholic University who was slain in November 1998
in what became known as the Semanggi I incident, said that she
would keep on fighting until justice prevailed.

"I will keep on seeking the truth behind the death of my son,"
Sumarsih told the Post here on Friday.

Irmawan was one of the 12 victims of the Nov. 13 shooting,
which also came to be known as "Black Friday". The incident broke
out as student-led antigovernment protesters tried in vain to
march toward the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), where a
Special Session was underway to endorse various reform proposals
that the students considered to be ineffectual.

Sumarsih knew very well that justice might be hard to come by,
especially now that the military and police personnel believed to
be responsible for the fatal shootings had refused to abide by
the summons issued by KPP HAM following the conclusion of a House
of Representatives investigating committee that there had been no
gross human rights violations during the three incidents.

To further their cause, Sumarsih, her husband Arief Priyadi
and the parents of other student victims set up the Alliance for
the Victims of State Violence (AKKRA), a forum designed to seek
justice for their children.

"After the fatal shooting of our beloved son, we made the
attempt to seek justice our top priority," Sumarsih said.

Karsiah Hendrik Sie, the mother of Hendriawan Sie, a student
shot dead inside the Trisakti University campus in May 1998,
expressed a similar hope.

"I have lost my son forever. I can only hope this case will be
resolved thoroughly," she told the Post by phone, suggesting that
the Post should consult her family lawyer for further comment.

Ho Kim Ngo, the mother of University of Indonesia student Yap
Yun Hap, agreed with Sumarsih and Karsiah Hendrik Sie, but
declined to comment in detail due to her poor health.

Yap Yun Hab was shot dead outside the Atma Jaya Catholic
University on Sept. 24, 1999, in what has become known as the
Semanggi II incident.

Sumarsih said the government, through the social ministry,
once gave her family Rp 5 million in compensation, but she
returned the money immediately.

"Upon receiving the money, I got a terrible headache, so I
decided to return the money immediately," said Sumarsih,
admitting that she just recovered from serious depression caused
by her son's tragic death.

According to Sumarsih, KPP HAM had been set up as a result of
years of collective struggle by AKKRA. She attended the
questioning of police and military officers by the special House
committee of inquiry.

Sumarsih also said that her group had visited the United
Nations office in Jakarta to seek support for a fair trial
process.

"Of course, pessimism sometimes arises. They say the students
died for nothing. But for me, my son and his friends are heroes,"
she said.

Several hearings had been organized and many protests had been
staged to seek for fair trial. Justice seemed to be only a matter
of time when the government set up the commission of inquiry into
the incidents.

But, it has been more than three years since the incidents
took place and the authorities have still failed to bring the
perpetrators to court. The country has changed presidents three
times, but the legal process into the incidents continues to drag
along at snail's pace.