Lawyers comission seeks to help victims<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Muhajir, 55, was busily sewing a green flag
\nwith a star in the middle for the local United Development Party
\n(PPP) branch last week when dozens of young, yellow-clad Golkar
\nsupporters entered his yard.<\/p>\n
Without warning, they began beating and kicking Muhajir and
\nhis son, David, before disappearing just as quickly as they had
\ncome.<\/p>\n
Muhajir and David are the first clients of the Commission for
\nLegal and Human Rights for Victims of the Election 97, which was
\nset up by local lawyers two days before campaigning began on
\nApril 27. After just five days of campaigning, seven people had
\nlodged complaints with the commission.<\/p>\n
\"We are actively seeking victims of campaign violence,\" said
\ncommission member Budi Hartono. \"We're not sitting down and
\nwaiting for reports to come in. We go out there and seek those
\nwhose rights have been violated in this year's campaign and
\nelection.\"<\/p>\n
The commission, funded by Yogyakarta Legal Aid, is open 24
\nhours a day. It has about 100 lawyers, volunteers and assistants
\nin 18 regencies and municipalities in Yogyakarta and southern
\nCentral Java,<\/p>\n
\"The volunteers and paralegals have been trained to identify
\nvarious forms of rights violations in the election. They have
\nbeen briefed on issues of politics, law and human rights,\" Budi
\nHartono said. \"They will feed the commission with information on
\nthe election.\"<\/p>\n
Yogyakarta Legal Aid director Budi Santoso said the commission
\nwould use the Criminal Code to protect people against violations
\nof their freedom in the election.<\/p>\n
It will also fight cases using electoral law, including the
\nlaw prohibiting threats, violence and bribes to stop people
\nvoting freely.<\/p>\n
Besides fighting civil and criminal cases, the commission will
\npublicize violations of people's political rights in the
\nelection.<\/p>\n
\"We are taking a legal course to seek a fair general
\nelection,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The commission will also provide legal assistance to those
\naccused of obstructing the campaign and election. \"We also want
\nthem to have access to justice,\" Budi Santoso said.<\/p>\n
The commission has four sections, dealing with complaints,
\ninvestigations, litigation, and social, political and legal case
\nstudies. The sections are led by senior lawyers.<\/p>\n
The commission is manned by top academics, including
\nsociologist Loekman Soetrisno and political scientist Amien Rais.<\/p>\n
\"No matter who is hurt by the campaign, we'll give them legal
\nassistance,\" Budi Santoso recently said.<\/p>\n
Another group of senior lawyers in Yogyakarta have also
\nstarted working for the campaign victims in the Advocacy Team for
\nVictims of the Election (TAKEP).<\/p>\n
Darwis Purba, who founded the organization, and his colleagues
\nhave promised that legal action will be taken against security
\npersonnel who treat supporters with undue violence.<\/p>\n
The legal aid office has helped several snake-fruit farmers in
\nTuri and Salam subdistricts collect on promises made by Golkar
\ncampaigners in the 1992 general election.<\/p>\n
\"Golkar promised to give them seedlings if they voted for
\nGolkar. They did, and Golkar won in their areas, but the
\nseedlings never appeared,\" Budi said.<\/p>\n
The farmers lodged a complaint with the legal aid office.
\nAfter six months, the office managed to get the farmers their
\nseedlings.<\/p>\n
But is the commission an ideal body to handle the adverse
\neffects of campaigning and the election?<\/p>\n
The commission was established partly because the
\ncontroversial Independent Election Monitoring Committee has been
\nineffective. Its recent work includes an announcement of minor
\nviolations in the first weeks of campaigning.<\/p>\n
The monitoring committee has not been able to help people
\nwhose political rights have been violated. Its Yogyakarta branch
\nis manned by students who have been ineffective because of a lack
\nof funding.<\/p>\n
The branch held a training session for its volunteers
\nrecently, but only with the help of the PPP's and the Indonesian
\nDemocratic Party's (PDI) local branches.<\/p>\n
\"The training was held too late,\" said Suwandi Danusubroto,
\nthe secretary of local branch of PPP. Besides, several of the
\nKIPP training sessions were forcibly dispersed by the security
\npersonnel.<\/p>\n
It seems that without government support the monitoring
\ncommittee won't be able to help supervise the election,
\nespecially because its activists lack experience.<\/p>\n
Among the monitoring committee's patrons are senior journalist
\nGoenawan Mohamad, Moslem scholar Nurcholish Madjid, political
\nscientists Arbi Sanit and Arief Budiman. But only its secretary-
\ngeneral, Mulyana W. Kusumah, has vast legal experience after
\nworking for years at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Mulyana has been accused of having past
\ncommunist links. This adds to the problems plaguing the committee
\nas it struggles to find a role in election supervision.<\/p>\n
But the monitoring committee has made great strides in
\neducating the public about politics. And as Nurcholish Madjid
\nonce said, the monitoring committee and the commission are \"an
\nexperiment in democracy\". (38)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/lawyers-comission-seeks-to-help-victims-1447893297",
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