Dimas Jarot Bayu – The government plans to form an integrated team to resolve cases of past human rights violations. The team will be formed to dissect the various obstacles and find a solution to resolve the cases.
Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs (Polhukam) Wiranto said that the team would be made up of stakeholders from related government ministries and institutions as well as the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM). Other non-profit organisations will also be invited to hold discussions with the team.
“We will dissect them one by one [to find] where the obstacles are. Perhaps pro-justice or perhaps non-judicial. [If it’s] non-judicial how will it be done”, said Wiranto at his office in Jakarta on Monday July 30.
Wiranto said that the government has still not resolved any cases of alleged past human rights violations because of it has been hampered by many obstacles.
One of the obstacles is proving the case in the eyes of the law. Although there has indeed been investigations by Komnas HAM into cases of alleged past human rights violations, the results failed to meet the requirements to be investigated by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
If another investigation is carried out, Wiranto believes that this would be difficult because the incidents happened a long time ago. “It’s very difficult to find out who is guilty and accountable”, said Wiranto.
Furthermore, he believes that another obstacle is because no Ad Hoc Human Rights Court exists. According to Wiranto, Komnas HAM should not have handed the results of the investigations directly to the AGO.
Wiranto believes that the investigation results should be given to the House of Representatives (DPR) so they can be discussed first. This is so the DPR can later make a recommendation to the president to form an Ad Hoc Human Rights Court.
Meanwhile Wiranto believes that right now efforts to resolve alleged past human rights violations non-judicially would be difficult to do because it would conflict with Law Number 20/2000 on the Human Rights Court. The other problem is that no institutions exists which can resolve the cases without going through the courts.
“Before there was the KKR (Truth and Reconciliation Commission), but it has already been disbanded because it wasn’t in accordance with legislation. So there must be something to accommodate this”, he said.
In 2015 the government raised the issue of forming a team to investigate past human rights cases. There were at least seven cases that have been prioritised, namely the 1965 anti-communist purge, the Talangsari massacre in 1989, the Wamena killings in 2003, the Wasior killings in 2001, the abduction of activists in 1997-98, the mysterious shootings in 1983 and 1985 and the May riots in Jakarta in 1998.
So far there have been no concrete steps taken to resolve these human rights cases.
Notes
- In 2003 Wiranto was indicted on charges of crimes against humanity by a UN-backed court for his role in the Indonesian military violence during East Timor’s 1999 independence referendum. He was also implicated in the anti-Chinese riots in 1998 in a 2003 report by Komnas HAM he is alleged to have been involved in the Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi II shooting in Jakarta in 1998.
- In 2009 the DPR issued four recommendations to follow up investigations concluded by Komnas HAM which were submitted to the AGO in 2006. The four recommendations were for the president to establish an Ad Hoc Human Rights Court to examine the 1997-98 abductions, find the missing activists, for the government to provide compensation and restitution to the victims and for the Government to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. None of these recommendations have been acted upon.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was Pemerintah Akan Bentuk Tim Gabungan Kasus Pelanggaran HAM Masa Lalu.]
