Experts hail lawsuits against Soeharto

Experts hail lawsuits against Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): Political observers and historians have
expressed their support for demands into a reinvestigation of the
controversial events and alleged injustices that occurred under
former president Soeharto's rule.

Historian Onghokham said the increasing amount of suits filed
against past actions committed during the New Order era was a
common phenomena after a change of regime and could be seen in
other parts of the world.

"It is a common tendency for many to question the mysteries
behind the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI)'s abortive coup, the
March 11 executive order (Supersemar) and many other events that
happened during the former regime," he told The Jakarta Post.

He advocated further clarification of contentious historical
events so as to avoid confusion among the younger generation. He
said further that past sins should also be reviewed through a
judicial process.

Mochtar Pabottingi, a political observer from the National
Institute of Sciences (LIPI), underlined the need for the
government to draw up a list of priorities of which events should
be opened for examination.

"The present government will not be able to handle the
thousands of injustices people suffered during the New Order
era ... therefore they should prioritize major and fresh human
rights abuse cases, starting from those in Aceh and Papua (Irian
Jaya), Lampung, Tanjungpriok and the May 1997?? riots," he said.

Mochtar slated former senior officials involved in corruption
and bloody events in the past as "gangsters who should be
sentenced to death".

Political scientist Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia
said the increasing demands for a review of past alleged abuses
were part of the people's effort to finally find justice.

"The government has no other alternative than to listen to the
people's aspirations. The government must reinvestigate all cases
that claimed many human lives and caused material losses to the
people to prove its commitment to the supremacy of law," he said.

Arbi added that much of the focus on the past may stem from
frustration felt at the government's failure to resolve the
uncertainty of the present political and economic situation.

"The political situation remains unstable because none of the
corruption cases the government is handling have yet been
investigated thoroughly," he said.(rms)