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.