Experts doubt merit of reconciliation commission
Experts doubt merit of reconciliation commission
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Experts and human rights activists have expressed doubts over the
effectiveness of the planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(KKR) to resolve past human rights abuses, saying it would merely
expose some facts but would not result in true justice.
Rachland S. Nashidik, program director of the Indonesian human
rights group Imparsial, said the process of the KKR would only
result in forgiveness, but human rights abusers would never get
justice for their crimes.
"If we only seek truth, we do not have to set up a KKR. We
just need a thorough investigation (by existing institutions).
For me, the KKR, as stipulated in the current bill is
meaningless," he said after a discussion on transitional justice
and the contribution of a truth commission.
"We should also have a mandate to bring about justice via the
courts," he added.
He also warned that such a commission would quite possibly
become an instrument to whitewash all human right abuses that
have taken place, thereby exonerating the perpetrators entirely.
Therefore, Rachland called on the House of Representatives to
postpone the endorsement of the bill until the inauguration of
new legislators next year.
Under the present bill, there is no clause stipulating that
those found guilty of violating human rights, would automatically
be tried in court.
The bill states that cases that are resolved by KKR will not
be brought to court.
The country now has a human rights court, but it only has a
mandate for the alleged human right violations in the Tanjung
Priok incident in 1984, and the 1999 bloodshed in East Timor.
Priyambudi Sulistiyanto, a lecturer at the National University
of Singapore, also expressed pessimism over the proposed role of
the KKR in resolving past human right abuses.
He stated that there would be no guarantee that those found to
have violated human rights would confess their crimes.
Furthermore, there was no record of other Southeast Asian
countries succeeding with similar truth commissions as part of
efforts to resolve human rights violation cases, he added.
"However, as a process in this transitional period, we should
not oppose the establishment of the KKR as one alternative
solution," he said, adding that the KKR process must also be
conducted along with other possible solutions.
Baskara T. Wardaya, lecturer of the Sanata Dharma University,
concurred with Priyambudi.
He said the commission should become the impetus to resolve
rights violations but not the only solution.