Buru case 'must be reconciled'<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A historian is calling for the establishment of a rights tribunal
\nto look into the forcible exile of alleged members of the
\nIndonesian Communist Party (PKI) to Buru island in Maluku from
\n1969 to 1979.<\/p>\n
Asvi Warman Adam of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
\n(LIPI) said the government arbitrarily rounded up and sent into
\nexile on Buru island suspected PKI members.<\/p>\n
\"The case is very clear. Those who committed the imprisonment
\nare clear. Some of them are still alive, so are the victims. We
\nalso have many documents,\" he told reporters after a discussion
\non Tuesday.<\/p>\n
According to Asvi, the so-called Buru Island Resettlement
\nExecutor Body was responsible for the arbitrary imprisonment of
\nsome 10,000 suspected PKI members.<\/p>\n
The body, he said, was set up by the Attorney General's
\nOffice, which implemented the orders of the now-defunct Internal
\nSecurity Agency. According to the line of command, Asvi said, the
\nInternal Security Agency was directly under the authority of
\nformer president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
The government originally sent political prisoners suspected
\nof involvement in the 1965 abortive coup d'etat to Buru.<\/p>\n
Later, the government also imprisoned and exiled children and
\nwives of political prisoners to Buru, which was not designed as a
\nprison island. Many of them died of malaria and malnutrition.<\/p>\n
\"I assert once more that the Buru island case is very
\nappropriate for settlement by a rights tribunal. The suspects,
\nvictims, crime location and time when it happened are clear,\"
\nAsvi said.<\/p>\n
He considers the Buru island case the last part of a trilogy
\nof tragedy. He said the tragedy began with the murder of six
\ngenerals, two middle-ranking officials and a soldier on Oct. 1,
\n1965, by military members, who were later accused of having been
\ninfluenced by the PKI.<\/p>\n
The killings were followed by waves of bloody raids by the
\nmilitary and military-backed groups on PKI members and accused
\nPKI members from 1965 to 1966. Over 500,000 people are believed
\nto have been killed in the violence.<\/p>\n
Asvi said the violence from 1965 to 1966 should be looked at
\nby a proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission due to the
\nlarge number of victims involved.<\/p>\n
Heru Atmodjo, a former Air Force intelligence deputy chief who
\nwas imprisoned on Buru for 15 years, said he and other victims
\ndid not expect the perpetrators to be convicted.<\/p>\n
\"We actually expect them to admit their wrongdoing, as we have
\nalready forgiven them. That's all,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Masdar Mas'ud, a deputy chairman of the country's largest
\nMuslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, said reconciliation was
\nnecessary to prevent similar incidents taking place in the
\nfuture.<\/p>\n
\"We are ready to facilitate it (reconciliation),\" he said.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives has endorsed a bill on the Truth
\nand Reconciliation Commission. The commission is to be formed no
\nlater than six months after the bill is signed into law, or after
\nbeing approved by the House, if the president refuses to sign it.<\/p>\n
The settlement of human rights cases through the commission is
\naimed at ending hatred and hostility among communities. However,
\nactivists have raised concern the commission will only serve to
\nwhitewash rights violations.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/buru-case-must-be-reconciled-1447893297",
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