APSN | NGOs file report on KPU over Prabowo's eligibility

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NGOs file report on KPU over Prabowo's eligibility

Jakarta Post - June 23, 2014

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Prabowo: 'Do I have the guts, am I ready to be called a fascist dictator?' – Allan Nairn. June 22, 2014
Prabowo has 'no need to respond' to Wiranto's claims – Jakarta Globe. June 20, 2014
Komnas HAM pushes for human rights tribunal – Jakarta Post. June 20, 2014
Prabowo Subianto: will he be Indonesia's next president? – Sydney Morning Herald. June 20, 2014

Jakarta – A number of NGOs, united under the Coalition Against Forgetting Movement, have filed a report with the Elections Supervising Agency (Bawaslu) against the General Elections Commission (KPU) for allowing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto to run for president despite his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of activists in 1998.

The activists were accompanied by family members of the victims, as reported by tribunnews.com.

"Long before the registration period was opened [for presidential candidates], several mothers [of the victims] went to the KPU to tell them that they would not accept a presidential and vice presidential candidate who had violated human rights," the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator, Haris Azhar, said at the Bawaslu headquarters in Jakarta on Monday.

Haris added that the group had already sent a formal report to the KPU as a form of public participation in accordance with Law No. 42/2008 on the presidential and vice presidential elections. The KPU regulation No. 15/2014 regarding presidential and vice presidential candidates nominees grants the general public with the right to respond to the candidates that have been nominated by political parties.

"Through the Coalition Against Forgetting Movement and the families of the victims, on March and June 2 we sent written recommendations to the KPU to make sure that violators of human rights were barred from becoming presidential or vice presidential candidates," Haris told Bawaslu commissioner Nelson Simanjuntak.

Kontras and the victims' families had also previously sent a letter to the KPU asking for the topic of human rights to be included in one of the presidential debates. Haris concluded that the KPU should be investigated because they had accepted someone who had violated human rights.

Recently, former Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) commander Gen. (ret) Wiranto confirmed Prabowo's involvement in the abductions of pro-democracy activists in 1998.

Wiranto, who was a member of the Officers Ethics Council (DKP) in 1998, on June 19 revealed that Prabowo, who was then the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) chief, ordered the kidnapping on his own volition. (fss)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/06/23/ngos-file-report-kpu-over-prabowos-eligibility.html.