Lest we forget

News Desk

The Jakarta Post

Publication Date : 12-05-2014

Editorial: Lest we forget By News Desk in Jakarta/The Jakarta Post/12 May 2014=

Jakarta (The Jakarta Post/ANN) - Many of us remember the horror of watching a sea of people ransack and loot shopping malls or modest kiosks across most of the city on May 13, 1998, with many of them perishing when fire razed the buildings, one day after four Trisakti University students were shot dead on their campus.

The state of lawlessness and disorderliness was further aggravated by attacks on people of Chinese ethnicity, with many of them sexually harassed or raped.

It was a time when violence prevailed, peace was shattered and common sense was lost. That happened when security personnel disappeared all of sudden, or appeared just after the damage had been done.

Parents, children and relatives of the people believed to be killed in the wanton destruction have not seen their loved ones since. They have joined the mothers and fathers of 13 victims of forced disappearance in 1997-1998 in demanding the state take responsibility for the injustice.

Several investigations have been conducted to find the truth behind the incidents that preceded the fall of the New Order regime. The National Commission on Human Rights concluded that the incidents were gross human rights violations. Dozens of security officers were convicted and discharged, but that has never answered the question of who was responsible for what the rights body called systematic and massive atrocities.

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Lest we forget