Jakarta – In another attempt at justice, families and victims of the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre sent a letter to a United Nations special rapporteur Friday pleading for an intervention in the unresolved case.

The Human Rights Working Group and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) assisted in sending the letter to Gabriela Carina Knaul de Albuquerque e Silva, the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

Yetti, whose father fell victim to the bloody incident, told The Jakarta Post that she hoped sending the letter would lead to a new investigation, and in turn, a review of the case.

"I am optimistic that we'll get something good out of it. There are witnesses that have never been presented in courts or undergone questioning," she said on the sidelines of a press conference on Friday.

The Tanjung Priok massacre took place on Sept. 12, 1984, when a number of personnel from the armed forces opened fire into a crowd of Muslim protesters.

There were conflicting reports on the total death toll, but Tanjung Priok residents claim 400 people were either killed or went missing.

Usman Hamid, coordinator of Kontras, a local NGO that has long represented the Priok victims, said that sending the letter would act as a reminder for the government to reinvestigate the case. "It is also to remind the President to use his authority to give the victims their rights."

Usman said that there was no reason for the government to worry that by inviting the UN special rapporteur to investigate the case, there would be intervention from other countries.

"Inviting the rapporteur here will let us know if there were errors in the trial process and what the government could do to address the problem."

The rapporteur, he added, would also analyze past trials, which acquitted all suspects who had played major roles in the incident. "She would identify what went wrong. It could be that the judges or the prosecutors made mistakes. Or maybe the indictment was weak," Usman told the Post.

The Tanjung Priok case was first tried by an ad hoc human rights court in September 2003. Fourteen defendants were brought to the court, including Rudolf Adolf Butar-Butar, Sutrisno Mascung, both from the North Jakarta District Military Command.

Pranowo and Sriyanto Muntrasan, both Sutrisno's superiors, were also tried but were acquitted. The court sentenced Rudolf to 10 years imprisonment and gave Sutrisno two to three years in prison. A series of appeals finally resulted in acquittal of the two from all charges.

Analysts have cited prosecutors' weak indictments due to alleged pressure from the military as the reason for the acquittals.

Rafendi Djamin from Human Rights Working Group said that the Tanjung Priok case was a symbol of failure of the country's trial system. "The next legislative members have to come up with a law system that's effective to punish perpetrators of gross human rights abuses," he added.

Rafendi is scheduled to meet with the UN representative in Geneva in late September. (adh)