'Authorities commit most rights violations'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): State officials committed the majority of the
\nhuman rights violations recorded last year, activists say.<\/p>\n
Todung Mulya Lubis, chairman of the Center for Human Rights
\nStudies (Yapusham), disclosed the center's monitoring of rights
\nviolations between January 1995 and March 1996 at a seminar at
\nthe Center for Information and Development Studies (CIDES) here
\nyesterday.<\/p>\n
More than 85 percent of the 194 incidents of human rights
\nviolations recorded were committed by the authorities, Mulya
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He broke the figures down into the following categories: 71
\nviolations were perpetrated by police officers, 23 by rectors of
\nuniversities, while officials at provincial offices of Social and
\nPolitical Affairs came third with 18 offenses.<\/p>\n
The offenses which trampled people's civil and political
\nrights were against freedom of speech and expression, 101 cases,
\nthe freedom to assemble, 57 cases, and the freedom to follow
\none's faith, 36 cases.<\/p>\n
He said the authorities had dispersed or banned social and
\npolitical organizations' activities 38 times, art and cultural
\nactivities 34 times, mass media activities 18 times and speeches
\n17 times. In addition, the authorities had 14 times denied
\nrequests for demonstration permits.<\/p>\n
\"What was surprising was the fact that most of the violations
\nwere committed without any grounds,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The banning of 69 activities happened without explanation, and
\n29 because the organizers held a deviating political stance.<\/p>\n
In the seminar's later session, Armed Forces Chief for Social
\nand Political Affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid said promoting human
\nrights protection should not be done at the expense of the
\ngreater interests of the state.<\/p>\n
He expressed his conviction that controversies over human
\nrights violations generally occurred because of people's
\ndifferent perceptions of what constituted human rights.<\/p>\n
The situation called for empathy and wisdom so that one could
\nunderstand other people's perspectives, he said, because it is
\npossible that the dynamics in human rights promotion may suffer
\nfrom \"imbalance.\"<\/p>\n
\"This (imbalance) is only an excess...they are not general
\noccurrences... mistakes that occurred were beyond control and
\nwere not intentional,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Commenting on western countries' criticism of Indonesia's
\nhuman rights record, Syarwan said they should not \"teach\"
\nIndonesia about human rights protection.<\/p>\n
He argued that Indonesia had incorporated human rights values
\ninto the first paragraph of its 1945 Constitution Preamble.<\/p>\n
The constitution was established on Aug. 18, 1945, while the
\nworld was introduced to the values of human rights protection
\nthree years later with the establishment of the Charter of the
\nUnited Nations.<\/p>\n
In another session, Moslem scholar Nurcholish Madjid said
\nIndonesia should not worry about its human rights record.<\/p>\n
\"In terms of racial unrest, the United States record of rights
\nviolations is still far greater than Indonesia's,\" he said.<\/p>\n
However, he agreed with Mulya that it was people with power
\nwho committed more human rights violations, and against people
\nwho were less powerful.<\/p>\n
\"The more powerful the government is, the more human rights
\nviolations occur,\" he added. (imn)<\/p>\n
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