Annisa S. Febrina and Nichola Sarvangga Valero, Jakarta – This May, clothes fly from the shelves of a department store in Slipi, West Jakarta, as spring sale posters draw customers.

Eight years ago this month, clothes flew from the shelves as the mall was emptied by looters, before dozens of them were trapped and burned to death in the 1998 riot.

Life has to go on, but it has not been the same for those affected by the allegedly orchestrated chaos that killed more than 1,000 people and left mental scars on thousands others.

A group of youngsters in Bekasi has to live with the guilt of not being able to save a Chinese woman gang-raped before their eyes.

"We cannot erase the memory and it has been haunting us," they testified, as cited by human rights activist Esther Junus, who interviewed them in an effort to compile facts on the incident.

Meanwhile, a group of Chinese women have had to rely on each other to share the burden of the horrible experiences of gang-rape they went through eight years ago.

Mothers of those who have not returned home since May 15, 1998, have sought help to share the emotional burden of losing their sons and daughters.

Volunteer psychologist Dameria, working with a woman who lost her son during the riot, said the mother is now frequently a patient in a mental hospital. "She has her ups and down, and as May comes, her depression becomes unbearable," Dameria said.

Sumarsih, mother of Bernardinus Realino Norma Irmawan, or Wawan, a Trisakti University student shot to death on May 12, 1998, said her heart would always be grieving.

All of them have lost something. Sons, daughters, the sense of physical safety, sanity. It's been eight years since their lives were ruined in various ways, but many questions about what really happened are still unanswered.

The burned malls and ruined shops have been rebuilt but the perpetrators of the riot remain untouched.

Investigations by the non-governmental organization Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa, led by Esther Junus, have uncovered strong evidence that there were groups of stern-looking, well-built men going from one riot point to another to provoke the masses.

They allegedly provoked them to steal, burn, rape and create a havoc seemingly justified by the pressures people felt from the economic crisis that had hit a year before.

It is all part of the picture: the economic shakeup, political upheaval, anarchy, military violence, the downfall of a tyrant.

But, none of it matters for the victims and their families. All they know is that their lives will never be the same. And justice has not been brought about by the current government.

"These eight years have been used by Soeharto's associates to consolidate through the use of state institutions and other legal organizations, leaving the case unresolved," Sumarsih said.

She added that the government, for the past eight years, has emphasized horizontal issues to change the people-versus-government struggle into group-to-group conflicts.

Humanitarian Volunteers Network founder and coordinator Sandyawan Sumardi told The Jakarta Post everything that happened was just part of the long process of democracy. "I consider all of this to be part of the process of transition towards reform and finally democracy," said the Jesuit priest.

Sandyawan acknowledged that there was a significant change in freedom of expression and the ability to establish organizations. "Before we were not even able to discuss things publicly.

"The civil society movement should have been reinvigorated and strengthened since the fall of Soeharto, but it turns out to be the opposite with the government now stronger than ever," he added.

But, he said, "people will always find a way out when they are oppressed." Sandyawan explained that the increased presence and aggression of militant groups calling themselves defenders of religion or ethnicity are merely part of a larger context.

"I do not believe that this is a sporadic movement; they are well-organized political and economic tools," said Sandyawan.

Some who are fortunate enough not to have experienced any of these horrible events might say they are bored listening to the same stories over and over again.

They will have to listen. And their children's children will, too. Time quickly wipes the country's short memory span clean. Time may heal the wounds, but the scars will remain.