Reconciliation needed to curb new clashes

Reconciliation needed to curb new clashes

Five years ago, the bloody May riots erupted nationwide and
claimed almost 1,200 fatalities following the shootings of four
Trisakti University students at their campus in West Jakarta.

The incident triggered the public's anger and led to the
downfall of the 32-year-long authoritarian regime of then
President Soeharto.

Catholic priest, Ignatius Sandyawan Sumardi, invited all
people to erect monitoring posts to provide information, relief
and advocacy for the riot victims. Relying on voluntary
membership from many people, his Team of Volunteers for Humanity
managed to obtain data which depicted the magnitude of the bloody
incidents.

The group brought up a shocking report that the riots --
particularly the hatred expressed toward Chinese-Indonesians --
were pre-arranged, well-organized, systematic and allegedly by-
design.

Data from the group said 1,190 people died after being trapped
and burned during fires and 27 died of gunshot wounds. Thirty-one
people are still missing and 91 were injured. In addition, 168
women and children were raped or sexually assaulted during the
unrest, 20 of whom died or committed suicide.

It has been five years since that turbulent time, but the
tragedy remains unsolved even now. Not a single person has been
taken to court for all the bloodshed. Nobody has been blamed,
including those who were supposed to be responsible for upholding
the country's security at that time.

Worse still, the circle of violence continues. People also
begin to forget the price we had to pay to topple the
authoritarian regime and replace it with a more democratic
regime.

Sandyawan, the 1997 winner of the prestigious human rights
award Yap Thiam Hien, talked to The Jakarta Post's Damar Harsanto
recently about the May riot victims and what the people and the
government must do to stop the circle of violence in the country.

Question: Five years on how do you see the fate of the May
riots case?

Answer: Well, sorry to say there is no substantial improvement
in our society's system.

Let me start with the May riots. It's crystal clear that it
was a tragedy of violence in politics. It's also clear in our
report earlier that the riots were well-planned, systematic and
affecting areas nationwide claiming more than 1,200 fatalities.
No doubt, the riots were a crime against humanity.

We found that the riots resulted from heightened conflicts
between sources of economics and business, sources of politics
including military and even religious groups. Every source wants
to maintain power. But, of course, the cause of the violence
outbreak was never singular. Many corroborating factors took part
to create the situation which led to the riots.

After five years, we see there has been a systematic and well-
organized process to erase the people's memory over the bloody
incident by continuously negating all facts.

For example, (Jakarta) Governor Sutiyoso wants to erect the
so-called "reconciliation monument" in Glodok, West Jakarta. It
was one of the most severely affected areas during the anti-
Chinese riots which were tainted by rapes and lootings by
unidentified masses. (Sutiyoso was the Jakarta Military Commander
when the riots erupted).

It's a clear effort to cover up real facts that the riots was
not merely horizontal conflicts but in fact resulting from the
conflicts between elite groups which systematically manipulate
the poor condition of the society.

Look what we have now. All human rights perpetrators in the
May tragedy, also in other incidents like in East Timor for
instance, still roam freely and untouched. But the process of
fooling the people advances more rapidly than the learning
process of the public awareness.

Q: The May tragedy led to the downfall of then President Soeharto
and marked the new era of reform. What are the positive outcomes
in your opinion so far?

A: By the end of B.J. Habibie's tenure (who replaced Soeharto),
people have been enjoying enormous freedom to organize themselves
and express their feelings and opinions.

We have witnessed many movements that have been established,
including non-governmental organizations which address a wide
range of issues in the society. On the other hand, the victims
themselves, have learnt to hold joint efforts to struggle for
justice.

Through the crisis and tragedy, people always learn a new way
to build a new system which is not corrupt. They learn to help
each other and share memories which strengthens their solidarity
and political awareness.

Unfortunately, mob politics and self-centered party politics
have been undermining all positive outcomes in the society. The
kinship system blooming during the crises, have been ruined by
vested interests from various groups and parties to gain power
and win the people's support.

We can find that after a tragedy, a party will take advantage
of the tragedy to launch a campaign and show off their deep
concern of the people's suffering.

A few months ago, when fire razed hundreds of homes at the
Ciliwung riverbank in Manggarai, South Jakarta, 12 banners from
different parties were erected the next day although they might
donate nothing to the victims.

Q: You have been helping the May riots victims for a long time.
What exactly do those people demand?

A: The victims and their families no longer demand compensation
for them nor rehabilitation for the families' members (who were
killed during the riots) as criminals and looters. They believe
that any restitution and rehabilitation won't bring back their
family members or heal their psychological trauma.

What they want is a total renewal of the whole system in the
society so that such tragedy won't happen in the future and the
circle of violence stops.

Of course, they still want the culprits or those who were
responsible for the security in the country at that time to admit
their faults and start the reconciliation process. Then, let the
legal proceedings judge what is the best for them.

Q: What is your recommendation for the government and the society
to take immediate action which is urgent and important to the
improvement of our society?

A: The long term agenda of creating a more humane society based
on solidarity, self-help and critical awareness must be a
priority for the country's leaders -- whoever is in power.

The first thing to do is a humanitarian pause in which all
parties in the society and the government reflect with a peaceful
mind, deep consideration, based on their sound conscience to
think of how to stop the machine of political violence by
breaking up the circle of violence.

Perhaps, we can learn a similar lesson like the people in
Rwanda, Latin America, Yugoslavia or countries in the southern
part of Africa with their commissions of truth and
reconciliation. They managed to gather facts to uncover many
atrocities occurred in their countries while at the same time
held an intensive interaction between people who become victims
and those who have instigated the violence.

The interaction ended up with reconciliation. Then,
reconciliation become the touchstone to build a new system of law
solidly based on universal standards of human rights in politics,
economics and culture.

Q: What will happen if all those measures are not implemented?

A: There will be more victims. We have learned lots, let say,
from the spate of bombings on Christmas in 2000 to the Bali
bombings which carried along devastating social and economic
impacts to the country as well the people.

I'm just wondering how short the memory of our top officials
are, as they could easily revise their statements, and shift
blame for those responsible in the bombings to different groups
they dislike like the Free Aceh Movement, Islamic militants or
Jamaah Islamiyah, while always covering up the fact that many
security officers might have played a role in the bombings.

The circle of violence must be stopped, otherwise there will
be more victims. And, the craziest thing is people will get used
to witnessing lots of violence. We will witness our society in
total collapse.