Jakarta – Victims of the Trisakti incident have demanded the reopening of rights abuse cases, citing the Constitutional Court's recent decision the House of Representatives did not have authority to decide whether a case had legal weight.
The Trisakti University Student Organization sent a letter Tuesday asking the House to move on with human rights trials.
"We want the House to revoke their statement that no extreme human rights abuses occurred and to advise the President to immediately form an ad hoc court to try these cases," organization president Ilham Dasari Putra told a press conference at Trisakti University in Jakarta.
Karseih, mother of Hendriawan Lesmana, one of the Trisakti students killed during the 1998 riots said, "I don't want anymore demonstrations or anymore riots".
"Let's resolve the Trisakti case, the Semanggi tragedy cases and the kidnappings now. Solve those first and don't create new ones," she said.
The Constitutional Court ruled last Friday only the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) were allowed to decide whether human rights violations occurred in the cases of Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi II.
"The ball is in the AGO's court now, so we want the President and the House to push them forward," said John Muhammad, an activist with the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), who assisted the victims to push for an investigation into the Trisakti tragedy.
After the unrest that led to the fall of Soeharto, the House created a special committee to investigate whether human rights abuses had occurred during the tragedies. In 2001, that committee concluded there was no clear evidence of human rights abuses that could warrant further legal processes.
But the cases have been an ongoing issue for the government because of opposing opinions between the AGO, Komnas HAM and the House on what legal steps should be taken.
"The decision by the Constitutional Court should serve as a momentum for our democratically elected government to enforce the people's mandate," John said. "Conduct the trials right away," he said.
On May 12, 1998, soldiers allegedly shot and killed four students at Trisakti University during a student protest to demand then-President Soeharto step down.
The victims were identified as Hendriawan Lesmana, an economics student; Hafidin Royan, a civil engineering student; Heri Hartanto, a mechanical engineering student; and Elang Mulya, an architecture student. In the riots that followed from May 13 to 15, at least 1,217 people were killed.
Activists also claimed that between 1997 and 1998 the government masterminded kidnappings of several Trisakti students and other pro-democracy activists.
On Nov. 13, that same year, 17 people were killed and 456 were injured at Semanggi junction, Central Jakarta. On Sept. 22, 1999, up to Sept. 24, nine people were killed at the same junction. The events were dubbed Semanggi Tragedy I and II. (anw)