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Kontras urges Joko to form 'presidential team' to investigate human right abuses
Jakarta Globe - March 2, 2016
After promising to pursue reconciliation for victims last year, Joko's administration is yet to make concrete progress towards resolving painful human rights violations as the AGO is yet to launch an investigation.
"We have seen President Joko Widodo speaking three times about past human rights abuses, but until today there is no follow up on the matters," Haris Azhar said during a press conference in Jakarta, Wednesday (02/03).
Kontras has called on the president to issue a decree to establish a committee for past human rights abuses in order to boost the settlement process as the relevant ministers have so far failed to take proper steps on the matter.
A presidential decree is appropriate as many of the masterminds behind abuses currently control political parties in the House of Representatives and some occupy positions of power in Joko's administration, Haris said.
"The team should be placed at the Palace and directly deliver recommendations to the president. It's easier because the president can directly instruct the Attorney General and Komnas HAM [National Commission on Human Rights]," Haris explained, adding that some ministers so far have showed contra-productive comments to Joko's directive.
Several names are seen as potentially filling the positions, including Setara Institute coordinator Hendardi; former commissioner of Komnas HAM Marzuki Darusman; former foreign affairs minister Hassan Wirajuda; and former chairwoman of Commission for Women's Protection (Komnas Perempuan) Kamala Chandrakirana.
The statement was made following a letter from the AGO to Kontras on Feb. 23, which said past human rights abuses will be resolved in a non-judicial approach with reconciliation as it is now considered nearly impossible to collect evidence in many cases.
The rights group had received a similar vague answer from Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during his 2004 to 2014 term as president.
Haris said the AGO's claim that collecting evidence would be "nearly impossible" is based on a series of meeting with the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police, rather than a pre-investigation into the cases.
"What they called 'reconciliation' has no standards. First of all, you should know who is responsible for the violations. And ask the victim whether they are willing to forgive them or not," said Haris.
The letter, signed by AGO spokesman Amir Yanto, said the judicial approach for human rights violations will be handled by civil law mechanism – not criminal charges.
"The substance of the letter has showed that the AGO, in particular Attorney General HM Prasetyo as the commander of the institution, is not willing to resolve past human rights abuses," Haris said, adding Joko should remove Prasetyo from the post as soon as possible.
Komnas HAM has indicated seven cases of "gross human rights violations" in Indonesia's modern history. These include the 1965 anti-communist massacre, which saw more then half a million people killed, as well as a number of more recent extrajudicial killings of students and activists. In spite of ample documentation, there has been virtually nothing in the way of legal remedy for the victims.
Survivors and families of victims of the military's myriad massacres and other rights abuses over the decades have long demanded that the masterminds, many of whom still occupy positions of power in Joko's administration, be brought to justice for their crimes.
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