| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
Expert calls for independent fact-finding team on 1965 anticommunist purge
Jakarta Globe - October 1, 2016
The government is currently considering reconciliation to resolve what the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has declared gross human rights abuses. Many different versions of the events have emerged.
National reconciliation could not be achieved unless the truth about the massacre is revealed, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher Asvi Warman Adam said in Jakarta on Friday (30/09).
"The facts must be presented as they are, in order to reveal the truth. And the president should establish an independent committee to reveal the truth," he said.
According to the researcher, the committee may consist of members from various state human rights bodies, as well as nongovernment organizations.
"The committee could comprise of those who have been actively dealing with human rights issues all these times. They should represent various elements, ranging from religion to ethnicity," he said.
The government has promised to settle the case with the latest move being the staging of a national symposium earlier this year on what some observers have called the worst mass killings of the 20th century.
The government-sponsored and military-backed killings resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of alleged sympathizers of the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Millions more were imprisoned without trial.
Government officials have hinted that the case would be settled through reconciliation, with the symposium's recommendations having reportedly been submitted to Jokowi.
See also:
 |