The May tragedy now in House's court
The May tragedy now in House's court
Hera Diani and Tiarma Siboro
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
As the May 1998 riots remain unfinished business amid four
administrations and two independent investigations, activists say
that the ball is now in the House of Representatives' court.
Usman Hamid, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing
Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) urged the House to
propose the establishment of an ad hoc human rights tribunal so
that all suspects can be summoned.
The demand arose as there has been no sign from the Attorney
General's Office (AGO) that it will follow up the investigation
into the tragedy by the National Commission on Human Rights
(Komnas HAM), although the latter had found systematic gross
human rights violations committed in the riots.
"There has been an ongoing debate between the rights body team
and the investigators at the Attorney General's Office. We think
there is enough evidence to prove that crimes against humanity
have been committed. But the AGO thinks otherwise," Usman told
The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
He added that according to Article 43 of Law No. 26/2000 on
human rights, the House has the right to propose the
establishment of an ad hoc human rights tribunal which must be
endorsed by the government.
"The reasons for the establishment are clear: Human rights
violations have been committed, there is enough evidence
available and the investigations from the rights body," Usman
said.
The tragedy from May 13 through May 15, 1998 preceded the end
of 32 years of authoritarian rule of now ailing president
Soeharto.
Anarchy broke out in Jakarta during riots in which more than
1,000 people were killed, and more than 60 women, mostly Chinese-
Indonesians, were gang raped or victims of other sexual violence
in three days of bloodshed, arson and turmoil.
However, nobody has been held accountable and sent to prison
for the tragedy.
The 16-member independent team set up by Komnas HAM in March
2003 was not able to get most of the suspects to respond to
summonses.
They include the then Jakarta Military Commander Lt. Gen.
Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (now the Ministry of Defense secretary-
general) and Sjafrie's former assistant Maj. Gen. Tritamtomo (now
the Bukit Barisan Military Commander).
Regarding the number of victims, the Indonesian Military sent
a letter in April to the Post saying that "An investigation is
needed to verify the correctness of the report that there were
thousands of victims in the riots as otherwise the report is just
an assumption".
Usman said that it was the AGO's job to verify the results of
the investigation, including the number of victims.
I Ketut Murtika, the director of gross human rights violations
cases at the AGO said that the office was willing to resolve the
case if there was enough evidence.
"Unfortunately, there isn't. The witnesses' testimony is not
valid because it is only based on what they heard, not saw. It is
also difficult to find people with expertise in human rights who
can testify," he told the Post.
Murtika added that there was no clear regulation that could
force military commanders to be responsible for their
subordinate's wrongdoing.
He also asked the government to review the Human Rights Law
which according to him, gives too little time (240 days) to
conduct an investigation into such a complicated case.
Usman said that Murtika's reasons were baseless as based on
Article 42 of the Human Rights Law, military commanders can be
held accountable for their subordinate's wrongdoing.
"About the witnesses, they are indeed witnesses who lost their
children, and saw with their own eyes that a group of men dressed
in military uniform poured gasoline into a mall and deliberately
locked people inside," Usman said.