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)