Riots commonplace in RI
By Ester I. Jusuf
The following is the first of two articles reviewing the riots that broke out in Indonesia throughout the year.
JAKARTA (JP): The word "riot" which features prominently in the Indonesian press since the last part of this decade has three social symptoms generally.
The first is insurrection (unarmed popular uprising), the second is mob looting, and the third is widespread gang fights that cause much destruction.
The three symptoms marked its arrival following the July 27, 1996, forced takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.
A riot broke out after a severe clash between the unarmed people who tried to take back the headquarters and the fully armed military that defended the aggressors. After the masses were defeated and disbanded, they retreated, looted and burned everything within their sight.
From then on, riot after riot of every degree tore the country apart peaking at the May 1997 election. An uneasy calm ensued which lasted until May 1998 when a savage riot broke out and claimed numerous victims.
The military gunned down four Trisakti students demonstrating on May 13 and soon mobs in the thousands swarmed in a spirit of revenge through the Jakarta streets. The gathering quickly degenerated into riots in which buildings were burned and shops looted following brief clashes with the police.
At least 1,100 people lost their lives in this riot, either consumed by fire or beaten to death. Ethnic Chinese were not the only citizens that fell victim. The riot comprised mainly of mass looting. The mobs took everything they wanted from shops, from houses of the rich, or from pedestrians on the street.
What set the riot of May 14 to May 16, 1998, apart is the allegation that there were organized rapes committed while the riot was in progress. Facts show that there were a lot of rapes, while it remains to be proven legally whether or not the rapes were organized.
The second fact that is quite shocking is the military admitted that they knew all along the riot was going to happen. The Chief Director of the Army Intelligence Service (BIA), Zacky Anwar Makarim was quoted as saying it to that effect in (Kompas Sep. 3, 1998). Zacky also acknowledged the presence of "local agitators" in the scene.
We can always ask ourselves whether there is any connection to the fact that the security officers were late and were also very slow in solving the mystery, or to unveil the so-called provocateurs they had nabbed redhanded. The later phenomenon was to become a recurring trend in later riots, such as the Ketapang riot, Medan riot and Ambon riot.
After the May riots, which inflicted much damage (in terms of financial, lives, and nation's morale), again the country plunged into an uneasy calm. The people were shocked by the May experience but happy with the downfall of Soeharto from his 32- year iron rule.
Two months later, riots broke out again in the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura from July 1 to July 7, 1998. The crowd rallied a demand for independence from Indonesia and the army troops opened fire (Suara Pembaruan, Sep. 10, 1998).
Another riot also broke out in the Central Java town of Kebumen on Sep. 7, presumably stemming from an individual dispute between a Chinese shop owner and a local thug. The thug summoned his friends from the local bus station and begun attacking the Chinese community as a revenge.
Riots also broke out in the fisherman village of Bagansiapi- api in North Sumatra, on Sep. 15, as a result of a personal dispute between hoodlums. Fueled by rumors, the dispute quickly turned into a wide-scale open fight between relatives of both hoodlums (Suara Pembaruan, Sep. 16, 17 and 19, 1998).
It was about this time that the famous "ninja" case came to the fore. Rumors have it that a number of organized killers disguised in Japanese assassins "ninja" fashion were on the loose preying alleged dukun santet (shaman) in the East Java town of Banyuwangi. In the process they had taken the lives of innocent kiyais (Muslim religious leaders).
In October, mobs began their revenge on alleged ninja which set off a series of violent killings. Later, it was found out that eight groups of hoodlums were the main actors on the scene (Kompas, Dec. 31, 1998) though it remains unclear as to who was the man behind them.
The most significant in the series broke out after the Nov. 13 to Nov. 14 uprising. The press mistakenly named it a riot. A record of nearly one million people took to the street, demanding cancellation of the Special Assembly of the People's Consultative Assembly.
On Nov. 14, a small-scale clash between people and some military personnel nearly incited a riot but the students managed to prevent it (Kompas, May 15, 1998).
The students were caught by surprise, however, when a riot with religious overtones broke out in the Central Jakarta area of Ketapang on Nov. 22. The military put the blame on local religious leaders but the kiyais said it was the security officers who should be responsible for the riot (Kompas, Nov. 26, 1998).
The kiyais said the army troops provoked the mobs by shooting into the air and failed to take lawful procedures against capturing provocateurs. A similar kind of riot also broke out in Kupang, a town in West Timor.
The writer is Chairwoman of Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa