Activists uncertain over role of KKR
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Skepticism prevails among human rights activists over the capability of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) in handling unresolved rights abuse cases because the law dealing with it is considered far from workable.
Speaking in an international conference on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Indonesia, they demanded that Law No. 27/2004 on the commission be reviewed through consultation with the public.
The event, jointly organized by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Elsam, New Zealand's International Aid and Development Agency and The Jakarta Post, also featured speakers from South Africa, Guatemala, Peru and Argentina -- four African and Latin American countries where such a commission has been proven capable.
The President is still selecting 21 candidates from 42 names proposed by the House of Representatives to sit on the commission.
Ifdhal Kasim, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), said the commission would be unable to seek a comprehensive solution to the unresolved past human rights abuse cases because the law says the commission can only investigate individual cases and limits its authorities.
"The commission is tasked only to seek an alternative (out of court) dispute settlement. If the government is committed to national reconciliation, the commission should be given the full authority to uncover the truth behind unresolved human rights abuse cases and to understand what happened in a broader historical, socio-economic and sociopolitical context.
"The commission should not only determine the kinds of violations, victims and perpetrators but also provide an objective context for the abuses so that the public, including the victims, knows who should be held accountable," he said.
The commission has the right to investigate a case but has no authority to use force against those who fail to appear when it summons them for questioning or to testify in a hearing.
Almost all military and police officers who stood trial at the human rights court for East Timor, Tanjung Priok and Abepura atrocities were acquitted.
Enny Suprapto, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said the nation would lose the momentum to investigate the cases since the commission's mandate would end in seven years.
"The momentum for reconciliation is there as we are now moving toward a full-fledged democracy. When the commission ends its mandate, most people will have forgotten past human rights abuses and will no longer see the urgency of resolving the cases," he said.
Rev. Baskoro, lecturer at Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, said that to be fair, the past human rights abuses should be viewed in a broader national and international historical context.
"Human rights violations in the past involved the military as the government's agent to create social, political and economic conflicts. The mass killing of communist supporters in 1965 must also be linked to the Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States, which were competing for support for their ideologies and their economic interests in Asia," he said.
Eduardo Gonzales, member of the Truth Commission in Peru, suggested that the government propose changes to the legislation to make it workable.
"Another alternative is for Elsam, along with other non- governmental organizations, to bring the law to the Constitutional Court for a judicial review," he said.