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Imparsial: Justice must be served in past abuses

Jakarta Post - February 1, 2016

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Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – Responding to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's pledge to resolve several past gross rights abuse cases by the end of the year, human rights watchdog Imparsial has urged the government to answer victims' demands for justice.

The government announced last year that it would establish a human rights task force, also referred to as a reconciliation team, to pursue non-judicial resolutions to seven human rights abuse cases that have haunted the nation for decades.

However, al-Araf of Imparsial said that in spite of Jokowi's pledge, the government would not get far if it insisted on relying solely on the reconciliation team to resolve the cases.

Al-Araf said the reconciliation team's main purpose was to uncover the truth about the seven cases, which were initially investigated by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). The results of the investigations were submitted to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) in 2012.

"We must continue working [to resolve past rights abuses] and [the government] must follow up on our findings. It has already promised and committed to resolving all these cases. However, we must remember that using non-judicial method does not remove the possibility of [the cases] being tried in court," he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The planned reconciliation team should not, he said, be given ultimate authority to resolve all past rights abuse cases. "The reconciliation team's [objective] is only to discover and publicize what happened; the mechanism for justice should not be impeded."

The reconciliation team is likely to comprise figures from the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, the AGO, the National Police, the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Komnas HAM.

The government has committed to resolving seven human rights violation cases, namely the 1989 Talangsari incident in Central Lampung, the 2001 and 2003 Wamena and Wasior incidents in Papua, various kidnappings and unresolved shootings in the 1980s, the 1965 communist purge and the May 1998 riots.

Previously, Attorney General M. Prasetyo said that the AGO would seek to resolve the issues through non-judicial mechanisms because of the complex technical problems involved, such as difficulties in gathering evidence.

Al-Araf furthermore called on the government to backtrack on its stated refusal to issue any formal apology if the reconciliation team found enough evidence to prove state involvement in the violation of human rights.

"An apology from the state is part of the process to resolve these past human rights cases. If the facts show that [the government] was at fault, then there must be an apology," he said.

Separately, Prasetyo said that the government was still tying up some loose ends before it could establish the task force.

"We are still moving forward. We have been holding meetings with various stakeholders, as the cases cannot be resolved by the AGO alone. All stakeholders involved must be asked to join in the discourse," he said, adding that he was optimistic the cases would be resolved this year.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/02/01/imparsial-justice-must-be-served-past-abuses.html.