Jakarta – Indonesia's new president Megawati Sukarnoputri stayed away Friday from the commemoration of a 1996 brutal military-backed raid on her party's former headquarters, which left at least five dead and scores missing. Megawati spent her fifth day as president travelling to West Java and Central Sulawesi instead.
But hundreds of veteran supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), formerly the PDI, gathered at the old headquarters in central Jakarta.
They were marking the fifth anniversary of the raid, hailed as the baptism by fire of the country's democracy movement during the last decade of the 32-year-long Suharto dictatorship.
On July 27 1996 thugs and riot police stormed the building after hundreds of Megawati supporters, protesting her government-engineered removal from the leadership of the then chief opposition party, refused to vacate to make way for the government-installed leader, Suryadi.
A government-orchestrated party congress held in June 1996 by a splinter PDI faction ousted Megawati, who had led the PDI since 1993. The raid sparked riots in which five people died and more than 100 were injured. Witnesses claim many more supporters were killed and that over a hundred are still missing.
It also catapulted Megawati into the spotlight as the symbol of opposition to then president Suharto, whose dictatorship was brought down two years later.
"This was the start of the democracy struggle. The collapse of the Suharto regime began here," said Dharmanto, a supporter who survived the raid. "We were all here, making speeches just like today when we were atacked. I watched my friends being stabbed."Megawati was elected president on Monday by the national assembly as it impeached Abdurrahman Wahid.
The move came 21 months after Wahid snatched the presidency from her despite her party's victory in the country's first democratic elections in May Megawati's elevation to the presidency on Monday marked not a victory for the party, but "a victory for the people," Dharmanto said.
He and fellow supporters marking the raid's anniversary said Megawati's absence was "understandable". "Mrs Mega belongs to all Indonesian people now, not just us," Dharmanto said.
Supporters clad in the party's red and black colours laid flowers on the floors of the now-empty building and made speeches, beneath signs demanding the prosecution of the perpetrators of the raid. "Who will take responsibility for solving the 27th of July tragedy?" read one. "Arrest and try the masterminds of July 27," read another.
Wim Tulis, 62, a supporter arrested during the 1996 raid and thrown into jail for over four months, said he had one message for Megawati. "Don't forget the July 27 tragedy. Don't forget the promises she made when we were in jail, that she would never forget us." Thomas Resmol, also jailed after the raid, said prosecution of the case should be Megawati's first priority. "We want to know where all our missing friends are," he said.
"If they are dead and buried, show us where their graves are. If they are still in jail, show us the prisons." Indonesian police last year named 12 military and police officers and 10 civilians as suspects, but there have been no prosecutions.
PDIP secretary general Sucipto said the party had not abandoned the case. "It's still in process in the courts," he told AFP. "We're waiting for the results." Resmol was pessimistic however that any of the military officers named suspects would ever be prosecuted. "Mrs Megawati is part of the government now, she is one of the power-holders. She needs the military. She cannot afford to bring any generals to court."