The President made the surprise announcement on Wednesday, fulfilling the recommendations of a nonjudicial resolution team led by veteran diplomat and human rights activist Makarim Wibisono, acknowledging that 12 major incidents of violence and repression in the country from 1965 to 2003 had amounted to gross human rights violations.

They include the anticommunist purge of 1965-66, which killed, according to some estimates by historians and activists, at least 500,000 people.

“I have sympathy and empathy for the victims and their families,” Jokowi said in a broadcast address.

But this was not enough for the protesters of the Kamisan movement, who for nearly 16 years gathered in front of the Presidential Palace every Thursday to press the government to reckon with past atrocities. Many were relatives of victims of gross human rights abuses largely ignored by the state.

“The statement of acknowledgement and regret by the President means nothing without concrete steps toward legal accountability,” said Maria Catarina Sumarsih, a Kamisan protester, in a statement on Thursday.

Sumarsih’s son, Benardinus “Wawan” Realino Norma Irawan, was among those who died during massive student protests in November 1998, in what became known as the Semanggi I tragedy. Since then, she has been fighting for justice alongside other victims’ families.

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