Mon, 04 Aug 2003

Activists wary of reconciliation commission

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Past rights violators could take advantage of the planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a means to whitewash the past and keep their hands clean, rights activists warned on Saturday.

They were commenting on President Megawati Soekarnoputri's statement before members of the People's Consultative Assembly last Friday that the government was planning to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with past human rights violations.

In the Truth and Reconciliation Commission bill submitted to the House of Representatives in June, past human rights violations, including the mass killing in the aftermath of the abortive coup in 1965, were to be settled by the victims and perpetrators out of court.

Coordinator of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Usman Hamid said the commission would only provide impunity for security officers implicated in various rights violations when carrying out their duties.

Asmara Nababan, former secretary-general of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said the government had to grant more power to the commission, otherwise "we will only repeat the failure we experienced in bringing East Timor rights violators to justice".

"The commission is complementary to the rights tribunal, it has to have the authority to summon alleged rights violators before offering to reconcile with the victims or proposing a trial for those who ignore the summons.

"To avoid failure in summoning military officers implicated in past rights abuses, the commission must be vested with subpoena rights," Asmara told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He was referring to the failure of Komnas HAM to summon the perpetrators of the Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi II incidents as well as the 1998 riots due to what he called "technical reasons".

Megawati said on Friday that Komnas HAM should not necessarily handle all human rights violations because "our history is full of turmoil resulting in many bitter memories that can only be resolved through special treatment".

Critics have said that the country's first ever human rights tribunal, in which alleged human rights violators were prosecuted in the former province of East Timor in 1999 had failed to break the cycle of impunity.

From a total of 18 defendants, 10 military and police officers and one civilian were acquitted. The remaining seven other defendants, including former East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares and former Wiradharma military resort commander Brig. Gen. M. Nur Muis, were sentenced to jail but remain free pending appeal.

Up until now, the government has yet to establish an ad hoc tribunal to try perpetrators of the 1984 bloodshed in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, despite mounting demands from rights activists.

Several military officers are alleged to have been involved in the mass killing, including the incumbent Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) Commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto.

According to Usman Hamid, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission bill has many flaws, including the mechanism for providing compensation for victims of rights abuses and the principle of retroactivity.

"It is not immediately clear how the government will provide appropriate compensation for rights victims.

"The government has also said that the commission is to facilitate reconciliation between violators and victims of violations that took place before the enactment of Law No. 26/2000 on the ad hoc rights tribunal. Does it mean the killing of hundreds of civilians in North Sulawesi during the Dutch colonial period will also be covered by the commission?" Usman asked.