SP/Natasia Christy Wahyuni – Fourteen years after four Trisakti University students were gunned down during a demonstration, leading to the fall of President Suharto and his New Order regime, the families of the victims are no closer to justice.
An investigation by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) concluded that the shooting was a gross human rights violation, and last month, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would officially apologize on behalf of the state for all such violations, including the Trisakti killings.
But for the families of the victims and a group of student activists, words are no longer enough. On Thursday, a new generation of Trisakti students demanded that the president take tangible steps to bring the killers to justice.
"Apologizing is just words. We don't need an apology from the president. What we need is concrete action from the leader of the nation," Shandy Rachmat Mandela Simanjuntak, the president of the university's student council, said as the Trisakti community prepared for the 14th anniversary of the killings on Saturday.
Special teams have been formed by four presidents in the years since the shootings, but no real investigation has ever been conducted to find and punish the people responsible for the murders on May 12, 1998. "In 2005, Yudhoyono said he would investigate the incident," Shandy said. "Well, we are still waiting."
At the beginning of May 1998, protests calling for Suharto to resign spread as an economic crisis hit the country. On May 12, with the military swarming the capital's main streets, more than 6,000 students, lecturers and staff members gathered at Trisakti's campus in West Jakarta to demand that Suharto step down.
As the demonstration heated up, soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters. Four students were killed – Elang Mulia Lesmana, Heri Hertanto, Hafidin Royan, and Hendriawan Sie – and dozens more were injured. The incident sparked riots across the country, eventually leading to Suharto's resignation.
Despite several independent investigations that pointed to possible perpetrators, a divided House of Representatives failed to recommend the formation of an ad hoc human rights tribunal to try the shooters.
Rights activist Hendardi said the government did not have the political will to solve a case that implicated military officers. "The president doesn't have the nerve to act tough," he said. "That's the main issue."