Thousands remember July 27 tragedy
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Around 1,000 people gathered on Saturday on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta, to commemorate the July 27, 1996 incident when hundreds of people attacked supporters of the then-ousted chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), Megawati Soekarnoputri.
They demanded the completion of the legal process for the July 27 incident and to rescind the nomination of Governor Sutiyoso as the PDI Perjuangan Jakarta's gubernatorial candidate, as Sutiyoso is one of former military officials implicated in the July 27 attack which claimed the lives of five people.
"The nomination of Sutiyoso hurts the victims of the July 27 incident. We are all disappointed about the emergence of authoritarianism within the party's central board," said a party legislator, Hariyanto Taslam.
He was referring to a recommendation from the party's central board, signed by chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri and the party's secretary general, Soetjipto, instructing all Jakarta members of the City Council to support Sutiyoso.
In addition, the recommendation also threatened "sanctions" against those who did not obey, or anyone found to be democratically voting with their conscience.
However, he stopped just short of openly criticizing Megawati. Another legislator, Permadi even shifted the blame to the executives of the PDI Perjuangan central board who had become "opportunists" and were giving poor advice to Megawati.
Megawati, nevertheless, did not utter a single word publicly on Saturday over the July 27 incident, despite it directly affecting her and her party.
After chairing an impromptu Cabinet meeting, Megawati, nevertheless, reportedly drove along some streets in Jakarta to have a closer look of the July 27 commemoration by her own people. She then stayed at home, monitoring the event via television.
Megawati, who was elected in 1993, was ousted as PDI leader during a government-engineered party congress in Medan. Her successor, Soerjadi, was a politician backed by former president Soeharto.
Other senior politicians from the party who took part in Saturday's event were Roeslan Abdul Gani, Sabam Sirait, Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno, Jacobus Mayong Padang and chairman of the party's Jakarta chapter Tarmidi Suhardjo -- who the party rank and file originally nominated.
"The attack against us here was held six years ago, but there has been no follow up (of the legal process) so far, so I hope that a fair trial against those who are responsible for the incident would be conducted as soon as possible," said Sabam, a party legislator.
Those participating in the event on Saturday included those injured in the attack, as well as the families of those killed. Also present were families and victims of other similar tragedies such as the May 1998 violence, the Semanggi incidents in 1998 and 1999 and various student organizations.
According to the National Commission of Human Rights, the military-backed violence took at least five lives, 23 are still considered "missing" -- their bodies have not been recovered -- and 149 were wounded.
Meanwhile, on Saturday the Jakarta police released 18 of 19 protesters who were arrested during a demonstration on Friday. The demonstrators burned an effigy of Megawati at a university in South Jakarta.
Head of the Jakarta Police detectives Unit Adj. Comr. Merdisyam said that Kiastono, a student at Jaya Baya University, was detained for insulting the head of state by burning the effigy and, if convicted could get seven years in prison -- or just about half of what Tommy got for assassinating a supreme court judge and possession of illegal weapons.