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Activists slam attorney general for ignoring Semanggi tragedies
Human rights activists have condemned Attorney General ST Burhanuddin for saying that the Semanggi tragedies that claimed at least 29 lives were not gross human rights violations, which they see as another step back from the government’s commitment to solve past human rights abuses
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uman rights activists have condemned Attorney General ST Burhanuddin for saying that the Semanggi tragedies that claimed at least 29 lives were not gross human rights violations, which they see as another step back from the government’s commitment to solve past human rights abuses.
Human right activist Maria Catarina Sumarsih, who is also the mother of one of the victims, said Burhanuddin's statement was like “the latest version of an old song”, which has again revealed the government’s ignorance and lack of will in solving the cases.
"Attorneys general are trying to escape their responsibilities as the investigators of human rights violations as usual. It keeps happening so it seems like the country allows impunity," she told The Jakarta Post, referring to past holders of the same post who also made excuses for not bringing justice to the victims.
Sumarsih's son, Benardinus "Wawan" Realino Norma Irawan, then 20 years old and a student at Atma Jaya University, was among the people killed during the student protest that took place from Nov. 11 to 13, 1998, which later became known as the Semanggi I tragedy.
At that time, students were protesting against the 1998 special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the Indonesian Military's (TNI) dual functions.
Another string of protests in Jakarta took place on Sept. 24, 1999, during which at least 12 more people were killed in a number of locations in the city. The violent day was later remembered as Semanggi II.
An investigation by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) revealed that there had been rights abuses in the Semanggi I tragedy. The investigation, however, stalled at the Attorney General's Office (AGO). Even after 21 years since the tragedy, no perpetrators have been put on trial despite decades of pleading by victims’ families and activists.
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"Attorneys general are trying to escape their responsibilities as the investigators of human rights violations as usual. It keeps happening so it seems like the country allows impunity."
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"A similar case happened in 2008 when the attorney general said the human rights abuse evidence file on the Semanggi shooting tragedies was missing. The victims' families together with Kontras [the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence] met with the then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. After Mr. Yudhoyono ordered the cabinet secretary to find out the truth, the day after that the attorney general corrected their statement saying that the files were not missing. It was all a lie," she said.
"Speaking of evidence, my son was shot in the chest with a bullet that was only used by the Army. The hospital post mortem results on my son were never given to me as it would be used in court. However, the court was never there and the post mortem results would be destroyed after five years by the hospital. The government was the one who kept the evidence," she said, responding to Burhanuddin's claim of a lack of evidence.
In a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs on Thursday, the newly installed attorney general said the shootings were not an extraordinary case.
"There was a plenary meeting at the House that said that the tragedies are not categorized as gross human rights violations," Burhanuddin said, referring to a plenary session on July 9, 2001, that had concluded an examination into the results of an investigation into the case.
He also mentioned that the investigation of some past violence against human rights cases couldn't proceed since there was not enough evidence provided by the Komnas HAM.
"The evidence file by Komnas HAM is still incomplete. Two files have not been submitted. Besides, we kept returning the investigation files back to Komnas HAM because the files given to us were unorganized," he added.
According to Yati Andriyani of Kontras, Law No. 26/2000 on human rights courts mentioned that the House did not have a role to decide the status of the cases of violations of human rights. Thus, she questioned the decision stated by Burhanuddin that was decided after the meeting between the attorney general and the House.
She further explained that the correct mechanism was that Komnas HAM as the investigating team would report its findings to the AGO as the examiners. Once the violation allegation was proven with facts, the House would only make a recommendation letter for the president about the establishment of an ad hoc court for crimes against human rights.
"It was clearly a political issue that allows the President and elite politicians to avoid the judicial process for past human rights abuses," she told the Post.
Muhammad Isnur, a lawyer at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), said the AGO should consult with Komnas HAM on the cases.
"Our team has found out that the AGO did not form an examiners team to resolve the past human rights violations. They always rejected investigation results on the cases submitted by Komnas HAM," he said.
Sumarsih said that they would continue to fight for justice despite of the lack of support showed by the government.
"Impunity is a human rights disaster and it would only make other human rights abuses permissible. We would keep fighting for these gross human right violations to not happen again," she said. (trn)
