Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Chinese-Indonesians pressed on Saturday for the prosecution of the masterminds and perpetrators of the deadly May riots in 1998, which killed over 1,000 people in Jakarta and other towns.
"We will forgive them only after we know the truth and it means the perpetrators must be brought to justice," Ong Heru, a victim of the riots, told a discussion entitled: The May 1998 Tragedy, Shall We Forget It?.
Ong, nearly 70, lost his house and shops during the May 12, 13 and 14 mayhem. His wife's suffered multiple fractures to her legs when she jumped from the third floor of her burning shop, while his daughter became an invalid as she too jumped from the third floor, injuring her spine.
"I want it [the truth] revealed, not because I want to take revenge. It would affect my children, grandchildren and the country's future generations," he said.
Benny Satya, chairman of the Indonesian Tionghoa (Chinese) Association (INTI), shared Ong's view, saying that the demand of most ethnic Chinese victims was only that the masterminds be revealed.
"We really want to know what happened at that time. Who did that and why. Only then would we be able to forgive. If any Chinese-Indonesian claims that all Chinese-Indonesians have forgotten it, it's wrong. We are waiting for justice to prevail," he told journalists on the sideline of the discussion.
Other participants voiced similar grievances, questioning the government's lack of political will to resolve the case. They also expressed concern over whether those linked to the tragedy would become the country's future leaders.
Activist Ester Indahyani Jusuf, who was the secretary of an ad hoc team set up by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to investigate the riots, told the same forum that the riots were planned.
She urged the Attorney General's Office to follow up the team's report by prosecuting those responsible for the incident. "But, they [prosecutors] keep saying that our report lacks this, that or the other, or that they do not have approval from the House of Representatives. We have sufficient testimonies from witnesses. What the prosecutors need to find out is information from those who were responsible for security at the time," Ester said.
I Ketut Murtika, the Attorney General's Office human rights division head, said his office was continuing to study the report that lacked testimonies from former military and police chiefs as they defied the team's summonses.
Gen. (ret.) Wiranto was the armed forces commander when the riots devastated Jakarta. He is currently contesting the presidential election on the Golkar Party' ticket. He has selected Solahuddin Wahid, who was the Komnas HAM's ad hoc team chairman, as his running mate. Last week, Solahuddin resigned as the commission's deputy chairman to accept the candidacy for vice president.
Probes into the tragedy had in fact started under the government of B.J. Habibie. But no suspects were named by the Attorney General's Office as the House decided that gross human rights abuses were not committed in the May riots.
During the incident that led to president Soeharto's fall on May 21, 1998, no military or police officers were around to prevent the devastation, except those hired by the owners of private enterprises to guard their assets.
This strengthened widespread allegations that the riots were part of a conspiracy among those in power to quash the people's movement.
More than 1,200 people were killed during the riots, which were fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment across the country, according to the Volunteer Team for Humanity. Hundreds of shops, shopping centers and homes, particularly in Chinatown, were looted and torched in the violence that was triggered by the shooting of four Trisakti University students during an anti-Soeharto protest on May 12, 1998.