| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
Human rights let-downs damp Jokowi's pledges
Jakarta Globe - December 10, 2014
Observers and activists met the claim, which comes less than a week after the attorney general announced his office will not pursue further prosecutions for the 2004 assassination of rights activist Munir Said Thalib, with some skepticism.
"The government is committed to resolving past cases of human rights violations justly," the president said during a visit to Yogyakarta in observance of International Human Rights Day, which is today.
Joko said the 1945 Constitution guaranteed fulfillment of all Indonesians' human rights, making it important for the government to resolve violations. To this end, the president announced the government's plans to convene a truth and reconciliation commission, as well as ad hoc human rights tribunals.
That news should have been greeted as a positive step by rights campaigners who have long called for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission.
Hope for realization of Joko's plan to convene such a body has been dampened both by recent rights disappointments and political prospects for its future support, which remains cloudy at best.
The last time a president tried to convene a truth and reconciliation commission was during the late Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid's administration; the military put the kibosh on that plan.
According to Justice and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, efforts to unravel past human rights cases have mostly been undermined by the legislature, which has blocked the formation of truth and reconciliation commissions or rights tribunals.
But activists point to what they say is weak commitment by the Attorney General's Office as the real reason for failures to resolve past rights violations. They point to least seven cases of gross human rights violations for which law enforcement investigations are still pending.
Among rights campaigners' recent disappointments was the parole of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, convicted of activist Munir's 2004 murder, from Bandung's Sukamiskin Penitentiary after serving little more than half of his 14-year sentence.
Joko's pledge also comes amid a bloody police and military crackdown on unarmed civilian protesters in Papua's Paniai district that left at least four teenagers dead and many more seriously injured.
Hendardi, director of prominent human rights watchdog the Setara Institute, urged the president on Tuesday to get to the bottom of Munir's murder. The only person convicted of Munir's murder was Pollycarpus, a former pilot for flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.
Hendardi cited claims Pollycarpus had acted on orders by National Intelligence Agency (BIN) officials, among them Budi Santoso, then-chief A.M. Hendropriyono and his deputy Muchdi Purwoprandjono, as grounds for reopening the case. Muchdi was acquitted; Hendropriyono, recently named a senior adviser to Joko, was never charged.
The Setara Institute says Hendropriyono is not the only person in Joko's inner circle with a checkered human rights record. The president has also named as his defense minister retired general Ryamizard Ryacudu, who led several military campaigns in Aceh and Papua that resulted countless civilian casualties.
Setara deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos also questioned Joko's pick for attorney general, H.M. Prasetyo, whom he said has not shown sufficient commitment to resolving past human rights cases.
Bonar seemed to reserve judgement on Yasonna's top job at the justice ministry, however, saying only that his ministry "is key to forming various rules and regulations that could determine the face of human rights in Indonesia."
According to a Setara survey, people's trust towards Joko's human rights commitment fell to 36.8 percent this year, compared to 39 percent last year.
Al Araf, program director of the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial), said Joko's administration plans to introduce two controversial bills as priority legislation next year: the State Secrecy Act, expected to curtail people's right to information and security forces' accountability, and the National Security Act, which would provide virtually unlimited powers to the Indonesian Military, the National Police and the State Intelligence Agency – all bodies with appalling human rights records.
Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/human-rights-let-downs-damp-jokowis-pledges/.
See also:
 |