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Tanjung Priok massacre survivors demand memorial ‘to prevent memory from fading’
The impact of the Tanjung Priok massacre in 1984 resonates through the decades and generations.
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Kamisan, a silent protest that has been held every Thursday since Jan. 18, 2007 by the Victims Solidarity Network for Justice (JSKK), calls on the government to take action to resolve cases of past human rights violations. (JP/Narabeto Korohama)
S
yahar Banu, a daughter of Aminatun Najariah who was sent to jail 35 years ago after the Tanjung Priok massacre took place, had not been born at that time.
However, the impact of that tragedy resonates decades afterward and affects the lives of many, including Banu.
“Growing up, I had to see my mother go through recurring stages of depression,” Banu told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a press conference held to mark the 35th year since the massacre at Amnesty International Indonesia’s office in Central Jakarta on Thursday.
“When night fell, she often got panicky and screamed at the top of her lungs. She said she still hears the voices of people being physically tortured that she used to hear when she was in jail,” she added.
Banu said that Aminatun was arrested along with her brother Abdul Basir and then sent to jail without undergoing legal proceedings. Aminatun spent three months in detention and claimed that, according to Banu, she was not being treated decently as a woman.
When the arrest was made, the officers confiscated Aminatun’s baking equipment she used to make snacks that she sold for a living. Banu said, as her mother told her, the items were seized as evidence of an act of rebellion against the state.
“Up until now, we’re still wondering what a woman would do with a blender as an act of rebellion against the country,” Banu said.
