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People's tribunal accuses government of murder, torture
Jakarta Post - November 12, 2015
The tribunal is a non-formal process, often held by civilian groups to bring attention to unresolved human rights abuses.
"Nineteen-sixty five tells of more than mass killings. Nineteen-sixty five also tells of enslavement, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearances, persecution through propaganda and complicity of foreign countries notably the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Australia," renowned lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, acting as one of the six prosecutors, said at the first hearing on Monday.
Those acting as prosecutors presented six witnesses to testify, including victims, researchers and journalists, as viewed on a live video stream.
Martono, who was ordered by military and police personnel to move bodies of victims to the Bengawan Solo River in Java from 1967 to 1969, said that he had witnessed victims being electrocuted with up to 25,000 volts.
"Every day [I would move] a minimum of two bodies. On Sunday or Saturday it could be between 20 to 25 bodies. I had to drive myself at the time and received no help," he said, adding that he had also been detained and tortured once in 1965 but was let go because he was not a "target".
Another witness, using the pseudonym Basuki Bowo, was a member of the Concentration of Indonesian Students Movement (CGMI).
Basuki explained that he was detained for 14 years on Nusakambangan Island, off Cilacap in Central Java, and Buru Island in Maluku from October 1965. However, he was never told the reasons for his detention and was categorized as a "B" prisoner – those believed to be involved in communist movements without proof.
He added that prisoners were often beaten by military personnel during their incarceration.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) historian Asvi Warman Adam testified that based on his studies as a National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) researcher in 2003, he found there were more than 10,000 victims sent to the Buru Island prison from 1969 to 1979, most of them Class B political prisoners but some merely teenagers.
Asvi said prisoners were given insufficient food, were enslaved, tortured and not given a clear release date.
Although the forum, which will conclude on Friday, is not legally binding, it aims to shed light on incidents that are still disputed within Indonesia.
Government officials have dismissed the tribunal and claimed it to be unnecessary, saying the issue was being resolved domestically.
Similar tribunals have previously been established to shed light on different human rights issues, notably the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery (TPT) in 2000 and the Russel Tribunal on Palestine (RToP) in 2009.
Komnas HAM was notably absent from Tuesday's hearing but commissioner Muhammad Nurkhoiron denied that the absence meant the commission was unsupportive of the event.
Nurkhoiron said the commission had decided in a recent meeting not to attend the tribunal "because we have to keep in mind the national situation also because there are many pressures on Komnas HAM. However, we are wholly supportive of the event."
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