Human rights violations<\/p>\n
Former Indonesian Army chief of staff Rudini was interviewed
\nby Radio Australia on Feb. 2, 2000. Asked to comment on the
\nrecommendation by the Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights
\nViolations (KPP-HAM) in East Timor, Rudini asked that supposing a
\nTNI (Indonesian Military) corporal hit a bus driver on the
\nstreet, should the TNI commander be accountable for the act?<\/p>\n
I was truly disappointed by this naive and disproportionate
\nanalogy coming from Rudini, whom I know to be an objective and
\nfair person.<\/p>\n
Hardly any day passes without a member of the TNI or the
\nNational Police (Polri) committing a crime such as stealing,
\nmurder or drug trafficking. In cases like those, the TNI
\ncommander and the chief of police are never asked to account for
\nthose acts, are they?<\/p>\n
However, what took place in East Timor was a crime against
\nhumanity in which there is strong suspicion that the TNI
\ncommander approved or at least knew of the atrocities. If he
\nwanted to, he could have prevented or stopped the brutalities.<\/p>\n
In fact similar cases have repeatedly taken place in this
\ncountry, for example; Marsinah, Udin, July 27, 1996; the
\nabduction of activists, Trisakti, May 1998; (What about the
\nrecommendations by the fact finding team?); and the Semanggi I
\nand II \"incidents\". All these cases have never been solved.<\/p>\n
The designers and perpetrators of the atrocities in East Timor
\nmay have forgotten that, different from the other cases, the East
\nTimor case was as if laid under a magnifying glass. The
\ninternational community could clearly see and hear all that
\nhappened there. For us, the Indonesian people who long for
\njustice and truth, the case may be a lesson to avoid a recurrence
\nof such impunity and to enforce the supremacy of the law. The
\nrecommendation by the investigation commission should be followed
\nup by a fair and open hearing at court, without any intervention.
\nIt is also meant to prevent an international tribunal judging the
\nhuman rights violators.<\/p>\n
But I have my doubts if the Supreme Court is included in the
\nprocess of appeal. To date, the Supreme Court has been the only
\ninstitution that has not been affected by the reform movement. It
\nis still the final fortress of all forms of evil collusion.<\/p>\n
A. RAHMANTO<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/human-rights-violations-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }