Activists uncertain over role of KKR

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.