Maria Catarina Sumarsih (second right), the mother of Semanggi tragedy victim Bernardinus Realino Norma Irmawan, visits the Attorney General’s Office in Jakarta on Nov 13. - JP
JAKARTA: Twenty-six years have passed since New Order security forces fired on democracy protesters in Central Jakarta’s Semanggi interchange, killing 17 people, but still no one has been held responsible for the tragedy.
Rights group Amnesty International Indonesia, during a commemoration of the Semanggi I tragedy on Wednesday, renewed its call for the government to uphold justice for the victims and their families by prosecuting the masterminds behind the shooting of civilians.
“The acknowledgement without law enforcement is only empty talk. The Attorney General’s Office [AGO] has a legal and moral obligation to investigate the perpetrators and bring justice to the victims. The absence of such stern action shows the state’s failure to uphold human rights as mandated by the 1998 Reform,” said the group’s executive director, Usman Hamid.
Amnesty was referring to former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s move last year to acknowledge and apologise for 12 human rights violations that took place between 1965 and 2003, including the Trisaksi and Semanggi I and II tragedies (1998-1999), where student protesters demanded the resignation of then-authoritarian president Suharto and his cronies in the government, along with the dismantling of the military’s “dual function” in both civilian politics and defense.
Hundreds of people were injured and 28, including students, were killed in the two separate Semanggi tragedies, the first on Nov 13, 1998, and the second in Sept. 24, 1999, as security forces opened fire on the unarmed protesters to disperse them.
Usman said the Semanggi tragedies were not just a tragic moment in the country’s history but a critical juncture in the struggle that brought about the Reform period.
“The tragedies remind us of the students’ struggle for justice, from seeking accountability for the former president to limiting presidential powers and abolishing the military’s dual function,” he said.
“Sadly, these very principles of reform are being undermined by some political elites today. The families of the victims have continued to fight for justice through the Kamisan silent protests [held every Thursday in front of the Jakarta's State Palace], a fight that remains far from over.”
Maria Katarina Sumarsih, the mother of Atma Jaya University student Bernardinus “Wawan” Realino Norma Irmawan, who was killed in the Semanggi I tragedy, is among the protesters who for dozens of years have demanded, through the Kamisan protests, the legal resolution of the country’s multiple gross human rights violations.
In January 2023, Jokowi expressed regret over past human rights violations and vowed to “rehabilitate” victims’ rights “without negating the judicial resolution”. He did not specify how the government would do so.
Many protesters fear the acknowledgement and apology, which are not legally binding, could quietly allow for extrajudicial settlements and for the perpetrators to continue to avoid justice.
In fact, more than two decades since the establishment of the Human Rights Court in 2000, hopes for justice for the victims of the Semanggi tragedies and other gross human rights violations, including a violent purge of real and supposed communists in the 1960s that resulted in the death or imprisonment of more than half a million people, remain unfulfilled.
“The Human Rights Court, as one of the results of the Reform period, seems to have been neglected in investigating cases of gross human rights violations, including the Semanggi I tragedy,” Usman went on to say, urging the government to comply with the 2000 Human Rights Court Law.
A legally mandated investigation by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) found that the Semanggi I tragedy had, in fact, constituted a gross human rights violation. The investigation, however, stalled at the AGO.
No one has been put on trial in relation to the case despite decades of pleading by victims’ families and activists. The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has also highlighted the stagnation of law enforcement efforts despite the Human Rights Court Law.
“Since [the law] was enacted, there has been no significant progress from the AGO as an investigator in addressing the serious human rights violations [or treating them as] extraordinary crimes,” Kontras said in a statement, adding that the AGO had failed to understand the overall context of the law. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
