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21 years on, hope dims for justice in Semanggi shootings
The government has yet to prosecute those who have shot students during the Semanggi tragedy on Nov. 13, 1998, while more students died in recent street protests in the country.
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The parents of Benardus Realino Norma Irawan, who was shot dead in the Semanggi I tragedy, Maria Catarina Sumarsih (third left) and Arief Priyadi (second left), drop flowers in an event at the Atma Jaya Catholic University campus on Wednesday to mark the 21st anniversary of the shooting to death of 17 people in 1998. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
Working as a civil servant at the House of Representatives in the late 1990s, Maria Catarina Sumarsih had grown accustomed to the sounds of gunfire and tear gas shots from security personnel posted around her office in Central Jakarta.
In 1998, the country saw massive protests staged by university students who were calling for Indonesia's longest-serving president, Soeharto, to step down, and after he did in September, for his cronies and the military to be purged from the government.
On Nov. 13 that year, though, one particular gunshot turned Sumarsih's life upside down; the shot had hit her son's chest while he was reportedly about to tend to an injured student protester at his campus of Atma Jaya University, located near the Semanggi intersection in Central Jakarta.
Sumarsih's son, Benardinus Realino Norma Irawan, or Wawan, then 20 years old, had been a member of the humanitarian volunteer team (TRK) during the student protests that took place between Nov. 11 and 13.
At the time, students were marching to the House of Representatives complex to protest against the 1998 special trial of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the Indonesian Military's (TNI) dwifungsi (dual role). Their way, however, was blocked by security personnel in Semanggi.
"Witnesses said Wawan had asked for security personnel's permission to tend to the injured student protester. Once he was allowed to, he ran to the student while carrying a white flag as a sign for the personnel not to shoot him, but that's when he was shot in the chest," Sumarsih told the The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, which marked 21 years since the passing of his son.
