Suwarjono, Jakarta – On Tuesday September 14, victims of the 1965 tragedy1 went to the presidential palace wanting to meet face-to-face with President Megawati Sukarnoputri with the aim of presenting a legal action (Somasi) to the president.
Staff from the protocol division however suggested they go to the State Secretariat on Jalan Veteran. State Secretariat staff said that Megawati was too busy to meet them so in the end the litigation was handed over to secretariat staff member Rohim.
In the litigation the victims of the 1965 tragedy, who referred to themselves as citizens who had been victims of accusations that they were directly or indirectly involved in the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), presented three requests.
The first request asks the government to repeal all legislation which abrogates people’s economic, social, cultural and political rights, in particular the rights of G30S/PKI victims2. They also asked the president to issue a decree to rehabilitate citizens who were the victims of such accusations or slander. Finally, they asked the president to order all government institutions and bodies to reregister the victims and provide financial compensation taking in to account inflation and the price of gold.
The victims’ legal attorney, Uli Parulian Sihombing, who is also the director of the Jakarta chapter of the Legal Aid Institute said that the litigation was sent to Megawati and two other former presidents, Suharto and B.J. Habibie.
Megawati, Suharto and Habibie were given seven days to respond and if they failed to do so a second litigation would be sent. If there was still no response the case will be taken to court. (dit)
Notes:
1. On the night of September 30, a group of middle-ranking military officers kidnapped and killed six generals they accused of organising a coup against Indonesia’s President Sukarno. By blaming the incident on the Indonesian Communist Party, this provided the pretext for sections of the military, led by a Major General Suharto, to mount a bloody counter-revolution in which as many as 1 million communists and left wing sympathisers were killed, and hundreds of thousands of others interned.
2. Gerakan 30 September/Partai Komunis Indonesia, the September 30 Movement/Indonesian Communist Party.
[Translated by James Balowski.]
