Experts fear whitewashing in new Truth Commission
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Experts have expressed concern that a planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission will serve as a legal whitewash of past gross human rights abuses, allowing perpetrators to avoid prosecution.
Frans Magnis-Suseno of the Driyakara School of Philosophy told the House of Representatives commission in charge of deliberating the bill on truth and reconciliation on Monday that many perpetrators of past human rights abuses were still in power.
"It is not impossible that they are using their power to escape being held accountable. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission must not become an institution to protect them," Frans Magnis said.
Political analyst J. Kristiadi from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies expressed similar concerns at a hearing with the commission last week.
Frans suggested the bill order the planned commission to divulge the background of all the human rights cases it handled.
Without a clear background and explanation, he said, victims of human rights abuses would remain victims.
Former National Police chief Gen. (ret) Awaloeddin Djamin, meanwhile, urged lawmakers to overhaul the government-sponsored bill, which he said contained numerous flaws.
Awaloeddin said the bill did not clearly define the perpetrators of conflicts.
Taking the conflicts in Poso, Central Sulawesi, and in Ambon, Maluku, as examples, Awaloeddin said it was difficult to identify the perpetrators in these communal conflicts.
He added that finding who was responsible for rights abuses in a conflict involving the state was also difficult.
"Is it the military soldiers, the police personnel, the commander or the president?" he asked.
Monday's hearing was also expected to hear from Muslim scholar Nurcholish "Cak Nur" Madjid, former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and journalist Jakob Oetama, but they failed to appear.
Commission chairman Sidharto Danusubroto said Cak Nur was too busy with his position as rector of the Paramadina Mulya University and Jakob was sick.
Gus Dur, meanwhile, asked to delay his meeting with the commission until Dec. 9.
Awaloeddin also said the nation must restore the good names of those people jailed without trial following the 1965 abortive coup blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party.
He said the President could issue a decree to restore their names without having to go through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Earlier, several analysts have expressed doubt that the commission can help in the process of national reconciliation.
J. Kristiadi from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said that the nation could not reach reconciliation because the perpetrators of human rights abuses remained more powerful than the victims.
"The current atmosphere is not feasible for reconciliation. If we insist on forcing reconciliation, it will only create more problems," he said on the sidelines of a hearing with legislators.
The bill was mandated by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in a decree issued in 2000.
It is intended to settle human rights violations that have not been brought to a close by the current legal system.
It is expected that the perpetrators or witnesses testifying before the commission will apologize to the victims and offer compensation.