Although 20 years have passed since the late president, Soeharto, resigned in 1998, victims of human rights violations under his rule are still traumatized.

At the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence’s (Kontras) 20th anniversary in Jakarta on Wednesday, survivors spoke out about the physical and psychological trauma visited on them by the Soeharto regime and military.

Zulkifli, a survivor of the Krueng Geukeuh tragedy also known as the “Dewantara Incident” that occurred in North Aceh on May 3, 1999, was one the targets of the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) offensive against human rights activists.

He said he clearly remembered the day he was tortured by the military. “I was hung upside down for three days and beaten without mercy. Every time I think about it, I start to feel sick and angry again.”

During the Dewantara Incident, military personnel shot at a protesting crowd. They also reportedly tortured civilians who staged a rally against the government’s policy to declare Aceh a Military Operations Area.

A coalition of Aceh human rights groups noted that at least 46 civilians were killed in the tragedy. More than 100 people were injured and 10 others are still missing.

Kontras commissioner Yati Andriyani said the Dewantara Incident was one of many cases that had not yet been resolved. “We have noted nine big rights abuse cases or massacres that happened under Soeharto, including the 1965 and 1998 tragedies.”

Founded on March 20, 1998, Kontras was initiated to advocate for victims of the New Order’s military repression, which often involved abuses and abductions.

“It was born amid the turmoil of a power shift from the Soeharto regime to the reformists,” said Yati. “It was initiated in response to disappearances during the Soeharto era. Our biggest task was to uncover cases that happened under his rule.”

In the years that followed, Kontras — which was co-founded by the late rights defender Munir Said Thalib — helped the oppressed seek justice in Aceh, Papua; East Timor; Maluku Islands; Sambas, West Kalimantan; Sampit, Central Kalimantan and Poso, Central Sulawesi.

Yati said after 20 years, Kontras remained in a constant battle to seek justice for victims.

“It breaks our heart when we find out that in this political year, Soeharto’s cronies and descendants are contesting elections,” she said, referring to Titiek and Tommy Soeharto.

Commissioner Feri Kusuma said in President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration, he had witnessed alleged rights perpetrators who had risen to power, such as Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto and Prabowo Subianto, the Gerindra Party’s presidential candidate.

“It is as if Soeharto is still alive and powerful,” Fery added.

Yati said Kontras had faced various incidents in recent years that were often “unimaginable”.

She referred to a case of a modern slavery in Tangerang, Banten, in 2015, in which a number of children and young people were kept in a place camouflaged as a luxurious house to manufacture frying pans. “There is a gap in our constitution, in which the law is written but the implementation is stagnant,” she said.

Yati added that despite the ongoing legal battle that could lead to a long detour to justice, the success of a human rights organization occurred when the victims metamorphose into survivors.

“The key is to empower them. The people speaking today are already successful because they have been beaten, but still they rise high to spread positive influences not only for themselves, but also for others,” she said. (gis)

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