What's brewing?

What's brewing?

Ten days after the event, today the fear seems to be growing
among observers that what has become known as Black Friday -- the
Nov. 13 Semanggi incident -- may be destined to become yet
another dark stain on our growing roster of unresolved major
cases burdening our collective conscience as a nation. And this
time in particular, there is every reason for anyone whose fate
as an individual is in any way tied to that of this country and
nation to feel at least a little bit disturbed at the way things
seem to be developing.

Let's try to take stock of the situation as it has unfolded so
far.

Even as youths and students continue to clamor for the trial
of former president Soeharto and for the Armed Forces Commander
Gen. Wiranto to step down over this bloody incident in which at
least nine people died and hundreds were injured, a number of
facts have come to light that warrant a deeper examination of the
whole affair.

First, forensic medical experts have found fragments of metal
bullets in most of the bodies of the victims of the shooting
spree. Military authorities have insisted -- and there is no
reason so far to disbelieve them -- that no live ammunition was
issued to the troops deployed at the site at the time of the
incident, but only blanks and rubber bullets. Military and
hospital sources, meanwhile, have confirmed that an almost intact
bullet measuring 4.47 millimeters in diameter has been extracted
from the body of one of the victims. "None of us in the military
is armed with this kind of bullet," the military source said.

Second, there have been reports of witnesses claiming that at
the height of the protest at the Semanggi cloverleaf bridge
snipers fired shots into the crowd of protesters from nearby
office towers. At the same time, Munir, the coordinator of the
independent Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras) has announced the exposure of hired
infiltrators posing as students to provoke clashes. One of those
infiltrators has even claimed to have been warned by pager by his
employer to leave the scene moments before the shooting began.

Third, while one could look at the Black Friday incident as an
isolated event that was sparked by the burning emotions of the
moment, it is impossible in the context of the student protests
over the holding of the Special Session of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR), from Nov. 10 to Nov. 13, to overlook
the progression of events that took place during the run-up to
the session. Most noteworthy, and most visible, in this context
was of course the mobilization of more than 100,000 untrained but
crudely armed civilian vigilantes under the banner of religion --
certainly a most unusual circumstance considering the military's
past aversion to armed nonmilitary units.

With all this in mind, it is tempting to view the statement
made on Friday by the highly respected chairman of the Nahdlatul
Ulama organization, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) in a new light.
Those who must be viewed as having committed treason during the
Nov. 13 incident, according to Gus Dur, are not the students or
their supporters, but those who fired the live bullets at them.
Could it be that Gus Dur was pointing a finger at a certain party
or parties who he believes have had a hand in the recent
troubles? And what could he mean by saying that since Wiranto
insists he is not responsible for the Black Friday shooting,
President B.J. Habibie, as supreme commander of the Armed Forces,
must take the responsibility?

All this is certainly very confusing for the public at large,
especially since several other major cases such as the kidnaping
of activists and the Trisakti University shooting incident of
last May continue to loom unresolved in the background. Many
people are now asking themselves if something big may be brewing
in the upper echelons of the nation's political elite. After all
it is during periods of instability and transition that political
operators thrive.

What all this boils down to is that a fair, open and
independent investigation of the Semanggi incident is most
urgently needed. Given the public confusion that now exists, this
is where the top priority must lie, especially if the political
future of the nation is at stake. The public has a right to know
-- in crystal-clear detail -- what precisely went and is going
on.