May 1998 riots remain just another deadly mystery
Jakarta Post / Indonesia Media
 Relatives of victims of the May 1998 riots repeated their call for justice this month, a yearly attempt to unravel the mystery behind the horrific violence. Supported by human rights activists, they visited the graves of their loved ones, held vigils, organized a book launch and knocked on government doors.
More than 1,000 people were killed during the spasm of violence that shook Jakarta from May 13-15 nine years ago. And yet nobody knows who was responsible. Estimates of total losses reached Rp 31 trillion.
Dozens of women, mostly Chinese Indonesians, were allegedly gang raped.
In Yogya Plaza in East Jakarta, hundreds of people were allegedly burned alive purposely by what witnesses described as "a group of well-built men".
A gathering was held this Sunday morning near the mall, which has been rebuilt and renamed Klender Mal, after the district.
A book launch by the groups Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa and the Association of Human Rights Lawyers was held at a packed Goethe Haus here last week, followed by a discussion.
The four speakers at the discussion -- Saparinah Sadli, Faisal Basri, Siti Musdah Mulia and Kemala Chandrakirana, all prominent public figures -- agreed that the  masterminds of the riots should be brought to justice, no matter how long it takes and how many obstacles must be overcome.
Also last week, students at Trisakti University commemorated the four Trisakti students who were killed on the campus by security personnel a day before the riots broke out.
Relatives of victims and members of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) visited newly appointed Attorney General Hendarman Supandji early this week, asking him to take the initiative to investigate the riots and related cases, including the Trisakti and the Semanggi One and Two shootings.
National attention, however, has been elsewhere.
A report on the riots by a fact-finding team of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has hardly been seen since it was submitted to the government in April 1999.
 High-ranking military and police officers who held important posts in Jakarta during the riots have been left untouched. These include Jakarta Military commander Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata (who died in 2003), Jakarta Governor Maj. Gen. Sutiyoso, Armed Forced Intelligence Body chief Maj. Gen. Zacky Anwar Makarim, Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto and Jakarta Military Command chief-of staff Brig. Gen. Sudi Silalahi, who is now the Cabinet Secretary.
Some of them are still in the military; others either got promotions or became prominent politicians.
The House of Representatives has refused to declare the Trisakti tragedy and the two Semanggi shootings as gross human rights violations.
 The book The 1998 May Riots: Facts, Data and Analysis, launched last week, details the three days of riots by the hour, based on interviews with witnesses and rioters. One rioter said that the riots had been planned for two months and that they had been carried out systematically, with massive destruction spreading like fire, affecting more than 80 spots.
This does not count simultaneous rioting in other cities such as Surabaya, Surakarta and Palembang.
Ester Indahyani Jusuf, who presided over the book launch, said there had been an attempt to narrow the people's perception of the riots to that of anti-Chinese riots, and even narrower still to only rape cases against ethnic Chinese women, whereas in reality the riots touched all sections of society.
Ester said the book publication had encountered numerous obstacles, including some put up by Komnas HAM, which said the book was not based on fact.
Unveiling violence that seems to have been blessed by state officials is difficult, especially when elements thriving in the subsequent governments are from the old forces.
This is one of the reasons why victims of rape in the riots, for example, have chosen to remain silent. In the words of one speaker at the book launch discussion, this is because they knew the current regime would not be responsive to their plight.
As the month of May passes, the voices of the victims and activists will fade away, swallowed by a government deeply entrenched in its culture of denial. Things will soon seem to return to normal, as if nothing happened in the past.
No one knows how long this cycle of a yearly call for justice will repeat itself, and how long the masterminds of the riots will smile in the dark, as year after year goes by with impunity.
 A refusal to face the past, not only the May riots, but also the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre in Jakarta, the 1989 Talang Sari massacre in Lampung, the 1996 attack on the Indonesian Democratic Party, the 1997-1998 kidnappings of activists, increases the risk that such tragedies will again happen in the future.
This is so when mystery upon mystery keeps piling up on top of the 1965 failed coup blamed on the communists.
The culture of violence continues unabated, as the Poso and Ambon communal conflicts, as well as the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, have attested post-1998.
Perpetrators, with the support of those in power, will not only try to erase but also to distort reality, so a persistent effort to unveil these mysteries is the only way to uphold the country's dignity.
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