TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
26 years on, Semanggi shootings remain unresolved
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Maria Catarina Sumarsih (second right), the mother of Semanggi tragedy victim Bernardinus Realino Norma Irmawan, visits the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) in Jakarta on Nov 13. Maria demanded that Attorney General ST Burhanuddin respect a Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) ruling ordering him to retract his statement claiming that the tragedy was not a gross human rights violation. JP/Dhoni Setiawan (JP/epost-robot)
T
wenty-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 apologize 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 Soeharto 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.
Read also: Indonesia vows to ‘enhance climate actions’, Hashim tells COP29
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.
