page_title: Trisakti shootings
section_title: Demonstrations and shootings
hierarchical_section_title: Trisakti shootings / Demonstrations and shootings
caption_attribution_description: English: A rough outline of the situation at Trisakti University during the 1998 Trisakti shootings. Based on the data from the Trisakti Crisis Center.
context_page_description: The Trisakti shootings took place at Trisakti University, Jakarta, Indonesia on 12 May 1998. At a demonstration demanding President Suharto's resignation, soldiers opened fire on unarmed protestors. Four students, Elang Mulia Lesmana, Heri Hertanto, Hafidin Royan, and Hendriawan Sie, were killed and dozens more were injured. The shootings caused riots to break out throughout Indonesia, eventually leading to Suharto's resignation.
context_section_description: A planned non-violent protest against the Suharto government started at Trisakti University on May 12, 1998. By 10 a.m.  WIB, over 6,000 students, lecturers, and staff had assembled in the university parking lot. The demonstrators began by lowering the Indonesian flag to half mast.
  As noon approached, protestors prepared for a "long march" to the People's Representative Council Building (Indonesian: Gedung DPR/MPR). A few hundred metres from the campus, they were stopped by the Indonesian National Police, in front of the West Jakarta Mayor's Office. In response, the protestors conducted a sit-in, completely blocking S. Parman Street. Military reinforcements for the police arrived not long after. At 3:30 p.m., Dean of the Faculty of Law Adi Andojo convinced the demonstrators to return to the Trisakti campus.
  By that time, the security forces on-site at the time were the Police Mobile Brigade, 9th Cavalry Battalion, 203rd Infantry Battalion, KOSTRAD Air Defence Artillery, 202nd Infantry Battalion, Kodam Jaya riot squad and a motorised brigade. They were equipped with riot shields, tear gas, Steyr AUGs, and Pindad SS-1s.
  By 5 p.m., most of the demonstrators had returned to the campus. Insults were then heard coming from the military and police; not long afterwards, they opened fire, causing the protestors to panic and scatter. Two students, Elang Mulya Lesmana and Hendriawan Sie, were shot and killed while attempting to enter the rectorate in the Dr. Syarif Thayeb building.
  An hour later, students who had not taken refuge within university buildings congregated in the open central plaza. Soldiers perched on the nearby rooftops continued shooting, wounding more students and killing another two, Heri Hartanto and Hafidin Royan. At roughly 8 p.m., the shootings stopped and the wounded were rushed to nearby hospitals.
  At 10 p.m., Adi Andojo announced at a press conference broadcast live on the campus radio station MS3 FM that four students had been killed, and released their names.
  Although the military has denied using live ammunition, autopsy reports indicated that the students had been shot with live rounds from a distance.
caption: A map of the situation at the Trisakti campus
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