Tanjung Priok revisited

Tanjung Priok revisited

Sixteen years since the military opened fire on demonstrators
on the streets of Jakarta's Tanjung Priok district, the ghosts of
the victims continue to haunt the nation. Since the case has
never been thoroughly resolved, it is not surprising that the
massacre still evokes emotion among many people, evident from the
attack on the headquarters of the National Commission on Human
Rights (Komnas HAM) on Friday.

There is no justification for the vandalism the Defenders of
Islam (FPI) inflicted on the commission's office. Apparently
discontented with the commission's report on the 1984 massacre,
the FPI members vented their anger by resorting to violence. The
attack served no purpose to anyone at all, not even to the
relatives of the victims of the Tanjung Priok massacre, who must
be anxious by now to bring the matter to a close and allow the
spirit of their departed loved ones to rest in peace.

While we let the authorities prosecute the culprits of
Friday's attack, Komnas HAM should take the incident as a warning
that it must treat the investigation of the Tanjung Priok
massacre much more seriously. Its report on the investigation,
released last week, failed to live up to expectations.

For one thing, the report did not shed any new light into the
massacre, which has been shrouded by mystery. Many unanswered
questions remained that way, even as investigators were given a
free rein to conduct their work, including unimpeded access to
relatives of the victims.

The death toll of 33 people stated in the report simply
reaffirmed the official figure. But this does not explain the
dozens -- some even say hundreds -- who have gone missing since
the night of Sept. 14, 1984. By sticking to the official figure,
the commission has ignored the pain and suffering which relatives
of the victims have endured these last 16 years.

Investigators made no effort to look into the allegations,
strong at the time, that the Tanjung Priok massacre was the work
of the military's intelligence arm. Not only was there a strong
indication of a political conspiracy, but also solid evidence of
an official cover-up after the massacre happened.

The gist of the commission's report hardly departed from the
official explanation of the "incident", as the massacre was
always referred to by the military. While it recognizes that the
military and the demonstrators were guilty of violating human
rights, the report refrains from naming any one person in the
Armed Forces responsible for the massacre.

Instead, the report proposed that the Indonesian Military
(TNI) leadership conduct its own investigation to look into the
chain of command at the time of the massacre. While an internal
investigation is fine and good, an incident of such political
repercussions to the nation should still be conducted by an
independent team. The Komnas HAM investigating team should have
taken up the matter itself, and not give it back to the military.

The most disturbing aspect of the commission's investigation,
however, is the allegation that the investigators met with the
TNI leadership, apparently for a consultation, prior to
finalizing its report. If this is indeed true, then it suggests
collusion at the highest level, and another attempt to cover up
the truth.

If the report released last week is the best that the
commission could do, then Komnas HAM has squandered a golden
opportunity to help bring to a close a dark page in the history
of president Soeharto's regime. The report is not likely to serve
the cause of justice, the very objective of the whole exercise.
On the contrary, it provoked another act of injustice on Friday.

In the meantime, the disappointed relatives of the victims of
the Tanjung Priok massacre will continue with their quest for
justice in other forms. Until they succeed, the ghost of the
victims will not leave the nation in peace.