Commission to unravel dark side of Indonesian history

Commission to unravel dark side of Indonesian history

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Justice and Human Rights Ministry has drafted legislation on
the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission to
settle the numerous gross human rights violations committed by
the Indonesian government.

The draft legislation, which allows for businesses and
individuals to be charged, has been submitted to the government
for consideration before it can be presented to the House of
Representatives.

Indonesia already has legislation allowing for the
establishment of ad-hoc tribunals to hear cases involving rights
violations. However, the tribunals can only hear cases which
occurred after the law's enactment on Nov. 20, 2000. The
exceptions are atrocities committed by Indonesian security forces
in East Timor in 1999 and the Tanjung Priok massacre in 1984.
Other cases will have to be settled through either the commission
or normal legal channels.

Under the draft bill, a copy of which was made available to
The Jakarta Post, the 15 member-commission will be given the
power to grant human rights violators amnesty if they plead
guilty and express remorse to those affected, provided the family
is willing to forgive.

However, the draft states the commission can provide the
president with recommendations to pardon rights violators, even
if the families are not willing to forgive.

Should the perpetrators plead innocent, the cases will be
heard by an ad-hoc human rights tribunal.

"Through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, both the
victims and perpetrators could share their experiences to
reconstruct the truth in connection with past human rights
violations. Only in this way, can national reconciliation
develop," according to the bill.

A committee comprising three government officials and two
community representatives will select 30 candidates, with the
president picking the 15 commission members. The selection also
have to be endorsed by the House.

Police and military personnel are barred from serving on the
commission given the conflict of interest.

The draft says the commission is authorized to investigate
violations following reports from the perpetrators, victims or
surviving relatives. The commission is allowed to obtain evidence
from civilians, the military or private institutions as well as
order people to testify.

The draft does not specify a time limit for past rights
violations that the commission can investigate.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra once
said the commission may investigate possible human rights
violations during Dutch colonization from the sixteenth century
to the 20th century.

State Secretary Bambang Kesowo said last week that
disagreement over how much compensation should be paid and its
impact on the state budget had delayed submission of the bill to
the House.

The abortive coup d'etat by the Indonesian Communist Party
(PKI) in the mid 1965, which claimed hundreds of thousands of PKI
supporters, and the May 1998 riots, during which at least 100
women and girls, mainly Indonesians of Chinese decent, were
sexually assaulted, are just two examples of cases the commission
could hear.

Researcher Priscilla B. Hayner of the Ford Foundation,
however, warns that the commission could only be effective if it
is supported by all parts of the community. She suggested the
government promote the commission among Indonesians.