Politics and violence

Politics and violence

After months of delay, the joint fact-finding team established
by the government on July 23 to investigate the May riots finally
presented its official report to the public on Tuesday.

The 26-page report, compiled during a three-month period of
interviews and on-the-spot observations, confirmed the public's
worst fears. It would seem that the riots were at least in part
incited by trained and accomplished agent provocateur. What is
more, the three-day orgy of violence that rocked Jakarta and
several other big cities was merely the culmination of a series
of related events that began in the run-up to last year's general
election and ended with the fatal shooting of four students at
Trisakti University in Jakarta on May 12. The riots brought the
32-year rule of former president Soeharto to an end and left more
than 1,200 people dead.

"In all these events the progression of acts of systematic
violence unfolded in an accumulative and expansive manner, and
may be regarded as building a focal point for the meeting of two
basic processes -- an intensifying struggle among the political
elite and a worsening of the economic and monetary situation,"
the report said.

"The May 13 to May 15 riots must be placed within a time span
covering the periods both before and after the event itself. They
were sweeping in dimension, with multifold aspects, and were
national in their scope. In terms of activity, the violence has
been classified by the team as ranging from acts of destruction,
looting, arson, sexual violence, torture, murder and intimidation
progressing into terrorism," the team said. The report notes that
observations made in several different localities had established
that the violence erupted at more or less the same time in all
locations.

Apart from confirming what the public already knew or
suspected, the report provides some interesting details so far
not mentioned openly in media reports. In Surakarta (Solo),
Central Java, for example, the team not only found "clear
indications" of the involvement of local hoodlums and youth
organizations, but also of state security personnel, "especially
of Kopassus (the Army's Special Force), in conditioning the
community. The case of Surakarta indicates that a link exists
between mass violence and (power) struggles among the elite in
the upper strata of society," the document said.

It is true that the joint fact-finding team's report contains
very little that sounds new to most of us. Nevertheless, by
providing official confirmation of our suspicions, the report may
help to encourage a comprehensive solution to the problem.

However this optimism must be qualified by one nagging but
potentially horrifying question. If it is true that much of the
unresolved violence and unrest that has dogged the country since
July last year is in some way linked to a power struggle between
elements of the country's political elite, what are we to think
of the spate of killings that is now spreading remorselessly out
off Banyuwangi in East Java into other regions of this island? A
few respected figures -- not to mention elements of the media --
have already indicated that a similar link may indeed exist here
too.

If this proves true, the seeds of national disintegration that
even now are stirring may grow to threaten the very unity of this
nation. Political courage is required to settle all these
unresolved conflicts once and for all as we line up in this last
stand for our Indonesia.