Thousands remember July 27 tragedy
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.