Thoughts on human rights<\/p>\n
More than two-and-a-half years after the fall of the
\nauthoritarian New Order regime -- and 52 years after the United
\nNations passed the historic Universal Declaration on Human Rights
\n-- some very basic issues concerning people's basic rights
\ncontinue to bother this nation.<\/p>\n
For sure, the process of change that started rolling with
\npresident Soeharto's forced resignation on May 22, 1998, and
\nculminating in the installation of President Abdurrahman Wahid in
\nOctober, 1999, has brought many positive developments where this
\nparticular issue is concerned.<\/p>\n
With a newly empowered national legislature and human rights
\nwatchdogs keeping a tireless eye on the government, arbitrary
\naction against dissenting citizens by the state has been
\ndrastically reduced, although it must be said that the use of
\nexcessive force and violence still occur in a number of regions,
\nespecially those where secessionist and sectarian conflicts are
\nraging.<\/p>\n
In all fairness, it must be said that the government of
\nPresident Abdurrahman Wahid has so far shown a sincere interest
\nin upholding human rights, even to the point of putting a Cabinet
\nminister in charge of the issue. There is also no reason to doubt
\nthe sincerity of the President's concerns over the conduct of
\nsecurity officers in troubled areas, where combatants on both
\nsides easily lose self-control in the heat of battle.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, to note all this is not to say that the willful
\nviolation of human rights has ceased to be an issue in this
\ncountry. Last week, even as the world was marking international
\nhuman rights day, Amnesty International and the New York-based
\nHuman Rights Watch reported that a number of local aid workers
\nwere killed \"execution style\" by government security forces.<\/p>\n
Similarly, gross human rights violations committed by both
\nsides in ongoing religious and sectarian violence in Maluku
\ncontinue to occur, although the situation there has apparently
\ncalmed down considerably compared to a few months earlier.<\/p>\n
But lest we allow such current improvements in our human
\nrights to whitewash our human rights record, let us not forget
\nthat none of the most flagrant human rights violations that were
\ncommitted by security personnel in the not-so-distant past have,
\nas yet, to be resolved. Indonesians are notorious for having a
\nshort memory where such issues are concerned.<\/p>\n
Who, for example, still remembers the indescribably human
\ntragedy of May 12 to May 15, 1998, in which more than 1,000
\npeople are believed to have been killed and an uncounted number
\nof women raped? What has become of the so-called Trisakti
\nIncident, in which four students in the prime of their lives were
\nshot dead by still-unidentified gunmen? And what about the
\nSemanggi shooting incident and the disappearance of political
\ndissenters from 1996 through 1968? Not one of those cases has
\nbeen satisfactorily resolved.<\/p>\n
The struggle to protect human rights in this country appears
\nat present to be gradually slowing down, even as Indonesians
\ncontinue to pay lip service to the issue. Gross violations
\ncontinue, notably in the remote provinces of Maluku, Irian Jaya
\nand Aceh. The real danger is that Indonesians, absorbed as they
\nare in the political squabbles that are being fought out in
\nJakarta, gradually start losing interest in what is going on.
\nBecause if that happens all the talk about democratic reform and
\nsacrifices that have been paid will have been in vain.<\/p>",
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