I

t was not as heroic as the country's Independence Day of Aug. 17, 1945, nor as dramatic and horrific as the Sept. 30, 1965, abortive coup blamed on the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI); but May 12, 1998, was also a significant day in Indonesian history as it saw the transfer of power in the country, as had the two former days mentioned above.

While Aug. 17, 1945, marked the transfer of power from Dutch colonial rule to the fledgling government of the Republic of Indonesia and the failed coup on Sept. 30, 1965 triggered the transfer of power from the Old Order government of president Sukarno to the succeeding New Order government of president Soeharto, the tragedy that occurred on May 12, 1998, marked the downfall of Soeharto and the subsequent emergence of reformasi.

On May 12, 1998, four students from Trisakti University in West Jakarta ' Elang Mulia Lesmana, Hafidin Royan, Heri Hartanto and Hendriawan Sie ' were shot dead by unknown assailants while they were participating in a protest to demand the resignation of then president Soeharto. The so-called Trisakti incident was followed on May 13 and 14 by killings, rapes, arson, looting and anti-Chinese riots, which claimed a total of 1,217 lives, according to data from the Volunteers' Team for Humanity; 1,190 of the victims were reportedly burned alive, trapped inside blazing buildings in Greater Jakarta.

The Trisakti incident has been regularly commemorated each year, and tomorrow (Sunday) marks the 15th anniversary of the tragedy. But until today, it remains unclear who was responsible for the deaths of the four students.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) submitted the results of its investigation into the tragedy to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) back in 2004, but no prominent persons have been named suspects for their alleged complicity in the incident.

So far, two National Police lieutenants have been held responsible for ordering the shootings. The two ' First Lt. Agus Tri Heryanto and Second Lt. Pariyo ' were respectively sentenced to 10 months and four months in jail by a military tribunal in Jakarta in August 1998.

The Trisakti incident, like Independence Day on Aug. 17, 1945, and the Sept. 30, 1965 failed coup before it, resulted in martyrs. While the martyrs in the chronologically first two events have been named heroes, the four slain university students died in vain. Determining who was really responsible for the Trisakti incident would help to compensate their sacrifice ' and, more importantly, prevent the repetition of similar incidents in the future.